Artificial intelligence can emulate human normative judgments on emotional visual scenes

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is learning more than just words—it’s picking up on our feelings, too. In this study, multimodal large language models were tested to see if they could match human emotional reactions to a variety of visual scenes. The AI ratings correlated surprisingly well with the human ratings, even though these systems weren’t specifically trained to provide emotional judgements on images. This discovery not only shows that language can support the development of rich emotion concepts in AI but also raises important questions about how we could use these technologies in sensitive contexts, such as eldercare, education and mental health support.

Romeo, Z., & Testolin, A. (2025). Artificial intelligence can emulate human normative judgments on emotional visual scenes. Royal Society Open Science, 12(7), 250128.