Will AI ever develop true emotional intelligence, or are we just simulating emotions?

AI chatbots and virtual assistants are getting better at recognizing emotions and responding in an empathetic way, but are they truly understanding emotions, or just mimicking them?

🔹 Models like ChatGPT, Bard and claude can generate emotionally intelligent responses, but they don’t actually “feel” anything.
🔹 AI can recognize tone and sentiment, but it doesn’t experience emotions the way humans do.
🔹 Some argue that true emotional intelligence requires subjective experience, which AI lacks.

As AI continues to advance, could we reach a point where it not only mimics emotions but actually “experiences” something like them? Or will AI always be just a highly sophisticated mirror of human emotions?

Curious to hear what the community thinks! 🤖💭