Empathy AI agent

Project Description

We are building an Empathy Agent to deliver peer-support in a digital arena. Ultimately, the agent could be used standalone or embedded into other e-therapies, solving the problem of computerised therapy lacking the human touch. By crowdsourcing empathic responses, the EA will grow smarter and more empathic with each use. We are proposing an always-on, easy-to-use Empathy Agent (EA) that improves over time and has access to a growing bank of responses generated by real users. Currently, there are no online, automatic systems available like this; the increasingly ubiquitous chatbot technology are mostly based on pre-written scripts. We will explore recent advances in natural language processing and machine learning in order to provide the most appropriate responses. Our system will provide instant responses crowdsourced from peers to deliver the voice of the peer support community in an empathetic and appropriate way in times of need.

People & Partners

Working together with Dr Feifei Xiong, Dr Kat Easton, Dr Abigail Millings, Dr Ian Tucker and Dr Fuschia Sirois.

Funders

This project has received funding from the EPSRC Network Plus NewMind.