Our industry-focused project, entitled Visual Identities of Virtual Agents with Empathy Traits, or VIVAET©, was seed-funded through a grant from the Next Generation Internet Explorers programme, EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 825183. The project is currently associated with PoeticA, and is being developed in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science, New Mexico State University, Institute of Telecommunications, Lisbon, Department of Art and Media Studies, NTNU, and the Department of Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen. Still in its concept-prototype phase, this project aims to determine how virtual agents, the avatars of any artificial intelligence, can be created as empathic presences. Will we trust a virtual medical assistant as much as we trust a human medical practitioner? Will we trust a virtual financial assistant when visiting our bank as much as we trust a human advisor? Will we, humans, embrace a stronger human-AI hybridity?
