Can AI feel? A Swiss study says yes and it will leave you speechless

It has long been thought that complex algorithms and the silicon chips on which they are run couldn’t possibly understand human emotions. However, new research out of the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Bern (UniBE) published in Communications Psychology shows that emotional intelligence is not the sole realm of humans.

A pair of researchers gave six generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including ChatGPT-4, common emotional intelligence tests on which they performed better at than humans. Furthermore, the large language models (LLMs) were able to generate valid and original new tests at lightning fast speeds.

AI bests humans at emotional intelligence

The researchers subjected ChatGPT-4, ChatGPT-o1, Gemini 1.5 Flash, Copilot 365, Claude 3.5 Haiku and DeepSeek V3 to a battery of emotional intelligence tests. “We chose five tests commonly used in both research and corporate settings,” said lead author Katja Schlegel in a statement.

“They involved emotionally charged scenarios designed to assess the ability to understand, regulate, and manage emotions,” added the lecturer and principal investigator at the Division of Personality Psychology, Differential Psychology, and Assessment at the Institute of Psychology at UniBE.

The results were stunning to say the least. The AI chat bots got 82% of the answers correct, a significantly higher amount than the score of 56% for humans.

“This suggests that these AIs not only understand emotions, but also grasp what it means to behave with emotional intelligence,” explained the study’s co-author Marcello Mortillaro, senior scientist at the UNIGE’s Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA).

AI can produce new, original emotional intelligence tests at breakneck speeds

The team’s research didn’t stop there. They also asked ChatGPT-4 to come up with new emotional intelligence tests involving new scenarios which it was able to do in a matter of minutes. These AI generated tests were then taken by more than 400 participants to validate them.

Again, the outcome was jaw dropping. “They proved to be as reliable, clear and realistic as the original tests, which had taken years to develop,” said Schlegel.

“LLMs are therefore not only capable of finding the best answer among the various available options, but also of generating new scenarios adapted to a desired context,” added Marcello Mortillaro. “This reinforces the idea that LLMs, such as ChatGPT, have emotional knowledge and can reason about emotions.”

What do the findings from this research mean?

This research indicates that AI could be used in areas that were once thought the sole purview of humans. This could include education, coaching and conflict management.

For example, education programs could adapt content to a student’s mood. Or virtual assistants would be able to know when the user is sad, stressed or unmotivated. Managers and team leaders could be made aware of brewing conflicts to prevent them blowing up or have tools to improve team cohesion.

However, the researchers warn that humans must not be taken out of the loop and that such powerful tools must always be supervised by experts.

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