'Empathetic AI That Moves the Heart'... Chonnam National University Achieves Outstanding Results at International Conferences

Chonnam National University is drawing attention by consecutively announcing research on "empathetic AI" that goes beyond artificial intelligence merely understanding human emotions, to influencing emotional formation, interaction, and decision-making. The research has demonstrated its excellence and global competitiveness by being accepted at top-tier international conferences in computer engineering, such as IEEE ISMAR 2025, ACM VRST 2025, and ACM CHI 2026.

According to Chonnam National University on March 18, a convergence research team consisting of Professors Kim Seungwon, Kim Soohyung, and Yang Hyungjung from the Department of Artificial Intelligence Convergence, and Professor Shin Jieun from the Department of Psychology, presented a total of four studies at international conferences, combining virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and psychology.

This research is characterized by empirically analyzing the impact of AI-generated facial expressions, speech, and gestures of virtual agents on emotions and decision-making through interactions with users. In particular, it confirmed that AI agents can function as "social companions" who share emotions in various situations such as emotional expression, persuasion, and emotional regulation support.

The main achievements by each study are as follows: Student Jung Jaejun (integrated master's and doctoral program) proposed a method to precisely implement and systematically compare and analyze avatar facial expressions by combining emotion theory and AI. This study was presented at IEEE ISMAR 2025, the top conference in the AR/VR field.

Student Seo Gayoun (integrated master's and doctoral program) generated gesture expressions for virtual agent speech and identified how the size and expression style of these gestures influence users' emotional responses and decision-making. This research was accepted at ACM VRST 2025.

PhD student Kang Saei developed a virtual AI agent supporting emotional regulation and analyzed how the agent's appearance and voice tone affect the user experience, suggesting design directions. Furthermore, a study comparing emotional and informational support revealed that the preferred type of support varies depending on the type and difficulty of the task, highlighting the need for adaptive interaction strategies tailored to different situations.

This research will be presented at IEEE ISMAR 2025 and ACM CHI 2026.

Professor Gun A. Lee of the Empathic Computing Laboratory (ECL) at the University of Adelaide, a renowned research institute in the field of virtual and augmented reality in Australia, participated as a co-researcher, further enhancing the level of international collaboration.

The research was supported by the "Basic Research Laboratory Program" of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea, as well as the "Regional Intelligence Innovation Talent Development Program" and "AI Convergence Innovation Talent Development Program" of the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).

The Empathic Computing Laboratory at Chonnam National University continues to pursue research on interaction technologies and AI-based human-agent interaction that share not only information but also emotions over long distances.

Meanwhile, the Chonnam National University research team previously developed an AI-based "empathy recognition system" that accurately measures empathy levels in real time, which was published in the international journal Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (top 2.5% in JCR). This latest research expands on the previous flow of studies on "recognition, formation, and interaction" of empathy and is regarded as an example of the evolution of human-centered empathetic AI research.

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