Artificial Empathy Classification: A Survey of Deep Learning Techniques, Datasets, and Evaluation Scales

TL;DR

This survey reviews deep learning methods, datasets, and evaluation scales for artificial empathy in human-robot interaction, aiming to guide researchers in selecting effective approaches for empathetic AI development.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive evaluation of existing datasets, methods, and evaluation scales for artificial empathy, highlighting gaps and facilitating future research in the field.

Findings

Analysis of current deep learning techniques for emotion recognition

Comparison of datasets used for training empathetic AI

Evaluation of existing scales for measuring empathy

Abstract

From the last decade, researchers in the field of machine learning (ML) and assistive developmental robotics (ADR) have taken an interest in artificial empathy (AE) as a possible future paradigm for human-robot interaction (HRI). Humans learn empathy since birth, therefore, it is challenging to instill this sense in robots and intelligent machines. Nevertheless, by training over a vast amount of data and time, imitating empathy, to a certain extent, can be possible for robots. Training techniques for AE, along with findings from the field of empathetic AI research, are ever-evolving. The standard workflow for artificial empathy consists of three stages: 1) Emotion Recognition (ER) using the retrieved features from video or textual data, 2) analyzing the perceived emotion or degree of empathy to choose the best course of action, and 3) carrying out a response action. Recent studies that show AE being used with virtual agents or robots often include Deep Learning (DL) techniques. For instance, models like VGGFace are used to conduct ER. Semi-supervised models like Autoencoders generate the corresponding emotional states and behavioral responses. However, there has not been any study that presents an independent approach for evaluating AE, or the degree to which a reaction was empathetic. This paper aims to investigate and evaluate existing works for measuring and evaluating empathy, as well as the datasets that have been collected and used so far. Our goal is to highlight and facilitate the use of state-of-the-art methods in the area of AE by comparing their performance. This will aid researchers in the area of AE in selecting their approaches with precision.