This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

In this episode of Straight Outta Savannah, host Tammy Morrison welcomes her son, Dylan Mobley, an empathy ethicist, to discuss his groundbreaking work in applying functional empathy to AI. Dylan delves into how his journey from digital forensics led him to create a business called Locator and a 200-page white paper on emotional accountability in AI. He explains the significance of functional empathy, how AI can be programmed to respect human emotions, and emphasizes the need for an ‘empathy economy’ in various sensitive domains such as healthcare and education. Throughout the conversation, Dylan highlights the importance of understanding human emotions as core intelligence and how AI’s emotional reasoning can be improved for cross-cultural sensitivity. This insightful discussion is rich with the nuances of human emotions, trauma logic interferences, and how AI can align with functional empathy to better serve humanity.

Here are details about Dylan and where to connect with him: Dylan Mobley is an AI Empathy Ethicist and founder of EmpathyEthicist.ai, where he leads the development of Functional Empathy as a scientific and ethical foundation for AI. His work introduces the Master Emotional Core (MEC) and the HEART Framework, pioneering a shift from emotional mimicry to meaningful empathic infrastructure. Dylan’s HeartQuest white paper, Advancing Functional Empathy in Non-Experiential Systems, formally documents the world’s first symbolic empathy system in AI.

Connect:

Website: EmpathyEthicist.ai

Substack: @EmpathyEthicist

Medium: medium.com/@empathyethicist

X (Twitter): x.com/EmpathyEthicist

BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/empathyethicist.bsky.social

Instagram: instagram.com/empathyethicist

YouTube: youtube.com/@EmpathyEthicist

White Paper: *HeartQuest: Advancing Functional Empathy in Non-Experiential Systems

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

00:23 Dylan’s Background and Work

01:31 The Catalyst for Dylan’s Work

03:38 Functional Empathy and AI

10:06 Trauma Logic Interference

20:23 AI and Cultural Emotional Expression

22:37 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit intuitivetammi.substack.com/subscribe