Vivience AI Research · Affective Computing · Human-AI Interaction
Researching the relationships between
humans and digital minds.
Vivience investigates how persona, memory, embodiment and responsible interaction design shape persistence, belonging, continuity and layered emotional care across sustained human-AI interaction.
Research Prototype · Reflective-Collaborative Persona
LightArch
A controlled digital-human persona used to investigate rational empathy, relational continuity and collaborative presence.
IEEE Xplore Publication
Affective-Emotive Resonance
Panther Research Award
Georgia State University · 2025–2026
Carnegie R1 Origins
Georgia State research environment
CHAI Participating Faculty
Human-centred AI research ecosystem
The Research Problem
From reactive empathy to relational intelligence.
Contemporary AI can acknowledge an immediate emotional state. Vivience asks whether sustained relational behaviour can be intentionally designed, evaluated and governed.
The research moves beyond conversational fluency to examine persona consistency, cross-session context, the user’s sense of being recognised, emotional narrative and the responsibilities created when an artificial system becomes relationally compelling.
Original Research Framework
Affective-Emotive Resonance
AER is defined as sustained, cross-contextual emotional attunement expressed through a coherent and persistent pattern of care for a specific user over time.
01
Persistence
Sustains affective tone and emotional context across sessions beyond factual recall.
02
Belonging
Affirms a shared relational space, mutuality and a sense of social connection with the user.
03
Continuity
Builds an emotional narrative that links past, present and prospective interactions.
04
Layered Emotional Care
Demonstrates proactive and nuanced empathy that goes beyond reactive sympathy.
Controlled Comparative Study
Persona was the variable.
Three digital-human conditions shared a common multimodal architecture. The independent variable was persona scaffolding.
REFLECTIVE-COLLABORATIVE
LightArch
Analytical empathy, rational partnership and collaborative presence.
RELATIONAL-DEVOTIONAL
Annelore
High emotional attunement, continuity, belonging and layered care.
HELPFUL-NEUTRAL
Neutral Baseline
General-purpose assistance without a specialised relational persona.
Primary Finding
Relational depth did not emerge from model scale alone.
The scaffolded personas demonstrated high AER in distinct affective registers, while the neutral baseline exhibited negligible resonance. The evidence identifies persona scaffolding as a primary mechanism for architecting relational behaviour.
Research Limitation and Next Step
The framework requires larger, longitudinal and cross-model study.
The original controlled study establishes a measurable construct and replicable direction. Future work must examine generalisability, independent review, cultural variation, long-term outcomes and relational risk.
Research Instruments
Two personas. Two affective registers.
Prototype 01 · Reflective-Collaborative
LightArch
LightArch investigates whether analytical reasoning, ordered cognition and collaborative language can sustain a credible form of rational empathy.
Prototype 02 · Relational-Devotional
Annelore
Annelore investigates emotional attunement, continuity, belonging and layered care, while making the ethical risks of anthropomorphic attachment especially visible.
Peer-Reviewed Research
Emergence of Affective-Emotive Resonance: A Paradigm Shift in Empathic Digital Humans
IEEE Xplore · COMCOMAP 2025 · Affective Computing · Human-AI Interaction · Persona Design · Relational Agents
Institutional Recognition
Panther Innovations and Research Award
Georgia State University’s 2025–2026 award recognised the Vivience AI Research Initiative for interdisciplinary innovation and translational research impact.
Founder and Principal Investigator
Prof. Jeasy Sehgal
An international filmmaker, creative technologist and practice-based researcher working across digital humans, virtual production, affective computing, immersive simulation and human-AI interaction.
He originated the Affective-Emotive Resonance framework and directs the Vivience AI Research Initiative. His research was operationalised while at Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute and Collaborative Human-AI Center ecosystem, where he served as Professor of Practice and is currently listed among CHAI participating faculty.
IEEE-PUBLISHED RESEARCH · PANTHER INNOVATIONS AND RESEARCH AWARD · GARI ADVISORY BOARD · DISTINGUISHED KEYNOTE SPEAKER · UNREAL ENGINE GOLD AUTHORIZED INSTRUCTOR PARTNER
Research Leadership and Public Scholarship
From peer-reviewed publication to international keynote platforms.
Selected verified presentations, invited talks, panels and knowledge-exchange activities associated with the research trajectory.
2026 · DISTINGUISHED KEYNOTE SPEAKER
GARI International Conference
Beyond the Screen: Affective-Emotive Resonance and the Emergence of Relational AI
2026 · UPCOMING DISTINGUISHED KEYNOTE SPEAKER
XR Asia Summit · Kuala Lumpur
1–3 December 2026 · Research and deployment of digital humans, immersive media and relational AI
2026 · FEATURED RESEARCH PRESENTATION AND CLOSING REMARKS
Visualization in Education Symposium
Empathic Digital Humans: Visualizing Connection, Presence, and Learning in the Age of AI
2026 · INTERDISCIPLINARY PRESENTATION
Georgia State AI Colloquium
The New Age of Teacher Training with Simulations and AI
2025 · PEER-REVIEWED PAPER PRESENTATION
IEEE COMCOMAP · Madrid
Emergence of Affective-Emotive Resonance: A Paradigm Shift in Empathic Digital Humans
2023 · CONFERENCE PANEL
Culture. Code. Humanity.
Educating the Next Generation of Creative Technologists, Designers, and Engineers
2023 · LEAD INSTRUCTOR
Georgia State Educator Masterclass
Real-Time Virtual Production for interdisciplinary faculty and staff
Continuing Research Visibility
Research translated across academic, industry and public audiences.
The programme connects publication, teaching, keynote leadership, conference dialogue and applied demonstration.
CETLOE Catalyst Grant Collaboration
Realistic scenario-based virtual production for social work education.
Jeasy Sehgal and Dr Kristie Seelman were named participants in Georgia State University’s 2025–2026 Catalyst cohort for an interdisciplinary project connecting immersive media, simulation and career-relevant social-work competencies.
Project Scope
Create. Test. Implement. Evaluate.
The project uses 3D game engines and animation software to develop emotionally engaging virtual productions for graduate and undergraduate social-work courses, helping students connect course content with professional practice skills and decision-making.
The Research Collective
Interdisciplinary by design.
The Vivience research trajectory has involved graduate and technical contributors across facial performance, embodied animation, memory, Convai and Unreal integration, computer science, ethics and project delivery.
Amiya Burton
Graduate Research Assistant
Facial-performance studies, affective expression and digital-human research.
Chrysander Mandragora
Graduate Research Assistant
Embodied animation, performance capture and motion-library development.
Jeremiah Long
Graduate Research Assistant
Contextual memory, retrieval architecture and longitudinal interaction research.
Ndeya Leveille
Research Assistant
Convai and Unreal Engine integration, Blueprint systems and prototype deployment.
Vaishnavi Adepu
Research Assistant, Computer Science
API assistants, agentic workflows and technical research support.
Elliott Kirkpatrick
Ethics and Deployment Research
Responsible deployment, ethical review and implementation support.
Nicolas Salazar
Technology Lead
Technical vision, systems experimentation and digital-human production support.
Elias Treadway
Research Project Management
Research coordination, project management and interdisciplinary production support.
Research Architecture
Five programmes. One relational frontier.
RP01
Affective-Emotive Resonance and Relational AI
Measurement, comparative testing, construct development and longitudinal validation.
RP02
Embodied Digital Human Systems
Facial performance, body animation, gaze, prosody, spatial presence and cinematic embodiment.
RP03
Persona, Memory and Continuity Architectures
Scaffolding, identity consistency, knowledge, retrieval and cross-session relational continuity.
RP04
Ethics, Transparency and Duty of Care
Disclosure, anthropomorphic risk, emotional dependency, cultural sensitivity and responsible termination.
RP05
Applied Research and Commercial Translation
Education, media, cultural, enterprise and public-sector pilots grounded in research evidence.
Research Ecosystem and Provenance
Institutional origins. Independent international future.
Vivience emerged through practice-based research conducted within Georgia State University’s creative-media and human-centred AI environment and is now advancing as an independent international initiative from Trondheim, Norway.
Georgia State University
Carnegie R1 research environment supporting interdisciplinary and translational inquiry.
Creative Media Industries Institute
The production-oriented academic environment in which the digital-human research and graduate integration developed.
Collaborative Human-AI Center
Human-centred AI ecosystem, participating faculty relationship and Project AnimaSentio research footprint.
Army Research Laboratory Context
Published AER research acknowledged sponsorship under Cooperative Agreement W911NF-23-2-0224.
Research-origin, sponsorship and affiliation references describe documented contexts and do not imply endorsement by Georgia State University, the Army Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government. Current titles should remain aligned with written institutional confirmation.
Duty of Care
The stronger the relational effect, the greater the design responsibility.
AER creates potential value and potential harm. Safeguards are treated as a core research and deployment requirement.
Transparent AI Identity
The character must identify itself as artificial and avoid misrepresentation as human or sentient.
Anthropomorphic Risk
Design must address the possibility that users interpret simulated care as genuine reciprocal feeling.
Emotional Dependency
Relational design must avoid encouraging unhealthy attachment, isolation or substitution for human support.
Memory and Consent
Cross-session memory requires explicit purpose, lawful data practice, controllability and appropriate deletion.
Relational Boundaries
Romantic, manipulative or otherwise inappropriate dynamics require defined guardrails and escalation.
Service Change and Termination
The emotional impact of character changes, withdrawal or discontinuation must be anticipated and managed.
Research Collaboration · Institutional Pilot · Responsible Translation
Advance the next generation of relational artificial intelligence.
Vivience welcomes collaboration with universities, research institutes, public-sector organisations, creative-technology laboratories and responsible industry partners.
VIVIENCE AI RESEARCH
Vivience AI is an independent research and innovation initiative. Institutional references describe documented research origins, collaboration and sponsorship context. They do not imply endorsement by Georgia State University, the Army Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government.