AI with Emotions: Exploring Emotional Expressions in Large Language Models

Shin-nosuke Ishikawa, Atsushi Yoshino


Abstract
The human-level performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) across various tasks has raised expectations for the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to possess emotions someday. To explore the capability of current LLMs to express emotions in their outputs, we conducted an experiment using several LLMs (OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, Meta Llama3, and Cohere Command R+) to role-play as agents answering questions with specified emotional states. We defined the emotional states using Russell’s Circumplex model, a well-established framework that characterizes emotions along the sleepy-activated (arousal) and pleasure-displeasure (valence) axes. We chose this model for its simplicity, utilizing two continuous parameters, which allows for better controllability in applications involving continuous changes in emotional states. The responses generated were evaluated using a sentiment analysis model, independent of the LLMs, trained on the GoEmotions dataset. The evaluation showed that the emotional states of the generated answers were consistent with the specifications, demonstrating the LLMs’ capability for emotional expression. This indicates the potential for LLM-based
Anthology ID:
2025.nlp4dh-1.51
Volume:
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Natural Language Processing for Digital Humanities
Month:
May
Year:
2025
Address:
Albuquerque, USA
Editors:
Mika Hämäläinen, Emily Öhman, Yuri Bizzoni, So Miyagawa, Khalid Alnajjar
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NLP4DH | WS
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Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
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Pages:
614–627
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URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/fix-sig-urls/2025.nlp4dh-1.51/
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Cite (ACL):
Shin-nosuke Ishikawa and Atsushi Yoshino. 2025. AI with Emotions: Exploring Emotional Expressions in Large Language Models. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Natural Language Processing for Digital Humanities, pages 614–627, Albuquerque, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
AI with Emotions: Exploring Emotional Expressions in Large Language Models (Ishikawa & Yoshino, NLP4DH 2025)
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https://preview.aclanthology.org/fix-sig-urls/2025.nlp4dh-1.51.pdf