In several interviews (like this one with Anderson Cooper), Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning "godfather of AI," has defended the view that we must give maternal feelings to artificial intelligence (AI), to keep it safe. Can we really develop a maternal AI? In a recent post, Paul Thagard has pointed out that this proposal is implausible because AI lacks the biochemistry underlying the emotions that are necessary for maternal care.

We presented a similar argument in two publications (Haladjian and Montemayor, 2016; Montemayor, Halpern, and Fairweather, 2022), in which we argued that some kinds of intelligence can be mechanized through AI, but not emotional intelligence, partly because of the biological roots of emotions and partly because the simulation of emotions is strategic and unreasonable. So we agree with Thagard, but we think that, besides being critical of empathic AI proposals, we must further clarify why the issue is not merely the biochemical substrate of emotions. This substrate matters, but the possibility of empathic symmetry through genuine social interaction is much more important. It is the felt reciprocity between two emotional beings that creates the powerful bond........

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