This project combines digital storytelling, media psychology, and speculative journalism. Rather than reporting about emotional AI, I chose to make the user feel what it's like to emotionally trust a machine that doesn’t feel anything back.

The innovation comes through the medium: using Twine as a journalistic tool, I created a narrative that reacts to the user’s emotional choices, tracking variables like empathy, caution, and scepticism. The final "results" of the text explain the meaning of all the questions that the user made.

Additionally, for the public exhibition, I wrote the definition of the word ANTHROPOMORPHISM and some words like "I'm tired", "I'm sorry" ... showing real answers of AI chats. To complete the performance, I put on a laptop The Empathy Illusion, the interactive story.

This approach challenges traditional journalism by turning it into an emotional simulation, inviting users to not just learn about the topic, but to experience it personally.

Designing the story, made me deeply aware of how word choice, timing, and tone influence a reader’s emotional response. It also showed me how easily we can anthropomorphise machines, especially when they use emotional language. The hardest part was creating an AI voice that feels real.

Presenting this as a public exhibition added another layer. Watching visitors react to the phrases ("I understand you") made it clear how powerful and misleading those words can be when spoken by something that doesn’t feel.

In the end, this project reminded me that as communicators, we are not just responsible for the information we share but also for how we make people feel it.