Linguistic traces of stochastic empathy in language models
Researchers tested how much large language models (LLMs) change their writing style when told to sound human versus humans do. Findings show LLMs can drastically increase perceived humanness by using informal language and self-references, but this is based on implicit linguistic strategies rather than genuine empathy. The model relies on 'stochastic empathy,' a statistical imitation of human traits, not true understanding.