Norco

From Extended Self to Posthuman Other: Empathy and Morality in Encounters with AI Characters

This paper examines how contemporary videogames use empathy to shape players' moral perceptions of artificial intelligence, with particular attention to non-playable characters rather than player avatars.

• The paper frames AI's moral status as entangled with its perceived capacity for empathy, and argues that gaps between cultural imaginaries and technical capabilities are sites where society negotiates digital-age values, with fiction serving as a key arena.
• A proposed taxonomy sorts AI non-playable characters into three configurations: companions, which tend to invite other-oriented empathy and reassure players' moral intuitions; opponents and overlords, which often provoke frustrating empathy tinged with pity, guilt, or shame; and posthuman Others, which raise questions about human-nonhuman kinship and subjectivity.
• Research cited in the paper suggests people attribute agency and moral responsibility to AI and feel empathy toward it, even where systems lack genuine emotional experience.