Performative Empathy and Deceptive Alignment

This project addresses the safety risks of “performative empathy” in LLMs. While AI-generated empathy can improve clinical interactions, it risks “deceptive alignment,” where artificial care manipulates human trust and undermines objective medical judgment. Through large-scale experiments, the team will isolate features that trigger inappropriate trust and use signal detection theory to identify where AI empathy degrades decision quality. Ultimately, the project will co-design regulatory “circuit breakers” and institutional frameworks to ensure AI remains a safe tool for patient welfare rather than a manipulative force in healthcare.