Description :

Professor Sowon Hahn presented a thought-provoking talk titled “Empathic Machines and Humans: From Efficiency-Centered to Relationship-Centered HRI” at 2026 Annual Conference of the Korean Society for Cognitive and Biological Psychology.
The presentation explored how robots can meaningfully support everyday life across domains. Rather than replacing human capabilities, Professor Hahn highlighted the importance of designing robots that complement and enhance human experiences.

Professor Hahn also introduced several ongoing projects from her research lab, illustrating how these ideas are being translated into practice.
The event offered attendees valuable insights into the rapidly evolving field of AI-assisted rehabilitation, inspiring discussions about its possibilities and challenges in enhancing human health and well-being. Professor Hahn’s talk highlighted the importance of imagining not only more advanced technologies, but also more humane and socially attuned futures.

Three lab members also presented three posters, sharing recent research on empathy and reasoning in human–LLM interaction.
The presentations included “The Relationship between Empathic Dialogue Acts and Perceived Empathy in Humans and LLMs: A Comparative Study” (Serin Oh, Sowon Hahn, Yoon Kyung Lee), “Evaluating Large Language Models’ Performance in Emotion Category Classification and Cognitive Appraisal Inference Based on Subjective Emotional Experience Data” (Seonu An, Sowon Hahn, Yoon Kyung Lee), and “Empathy Alignment in Human–AI Interaction: Perceived Empathy, Cognitive Reappraisal, and Human Preference-Based Learning” (Yoon Kyung Lee).

Through these presentations, the researchers shared their findings with the Korean academic community on empathy comparison between humans and LLMs, emotional and cognitive inference, and empathy alignment in human–AI interaction.

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