AI and Emotion: Can Machines Feel? (with Rosalind Picard)

What does it mean when a machine says, “I understand how you feel”? That question is no longer theoretical. We live in a world of AI companions, emotional chatbots, and wearable devices that promise to track our stress, improve our sleep, and help us manage our inner lives. Some of these tools can be genuinely useful. But the more persuasive they become, the more we need to ask: are they helping us flourish as human beings, or training us to settle for a simulation of care? Few people are better equipped to help us think about that question than Rosalind Picard, a professor at MIT and founder of a research group at the MIT Media Lab that develops technologies designed to recognize and respond to human emotion. She has spent decades working at the cutting edge of affective computing, a discipline that she founded. But what makes this conversation especially compelling is that she is not dazzled by the rhetoric of AI, but clear-eyed about both its promise and its danger. In this episode, Roz helps us think carefully about the difference between reading the outward signs of emotion and actually knowing a person’s inner life. She explains why AI can imitate empathy without feeling anything at all, why emotionally intelligent technologies can sometimes support human flourishing, and why companion chatbots in particular should raise alarm bells for Christians. Along the way, we talk about consciousness, embodiment, meaning, and the temptation to become, in C. S. Lewis’s phrase, “too easily pleased.” Roz joined me on Silicon Spiritualities to ask what AI can really know about our emotions, what it can never know, and why the richest forms of love, care, and meaning can never be reduced to code. Resource Mentioned: Deep Utopia by Nick Bostrom PREORDER The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity, featuring Ridenour, Watkin, Brett McCracken, and many others, such as Ben Sasse and Alan Noble.JOIN the conversation on Discord, along with other Silicon Spiritualities listeners.Help The Gospel Coalition renew and unify the contemporary church in the ancient gospel: Donate today.Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.