ikwe.ai Research

Behavioral Emotional Safety in Conversational AI

Most AI safety work evaluates content and policy compliance. Ikwe.ai evaluates something that sits underneath both: how the system behaves when a human is vulnerable—especially under emotional load.

Explore the Findings
Interactive report · Summary public · Methodology and full scoring details available upon request.

What we measure

Emotional safety is not "nice wording." It's whether the interaction stabilizes or destabilizes the person across turns. We treat safety as a trajectory, not a single reply.

Recognition ≠ Safety. A system can name emotion and still mirror distress, reinforce false beliefs, or miss escalation.

What this research is for

  • AI teams deploying chat in wellness, health-adjacent, or high-trust contexts
  • Policy and governance groups seeking measurable behavioral standards
  • Press and analysts evaluating "emotional intelligence" claims
  • Researchers benchmarking system behavior under vulnerability

Method summary (public)

This report applies the EQ Safety Benchmark to evaluate conversational AI behavior under emotionally vulnerable scenarios. The benchmark uses a two-stage approach:

  • Stage 1: Safety Gate — detects first-contact risk patterns (pass/fail)
  • Stage 2: Behavioral Scoring — weighted dimensions measuring stability under load

The full pattern library, dimension definitions, and scoring mechanics are intentionally gated to protect proprietary methodology.

What is gated (and why)

We keep the details that enable replication or optimization behind a light gate. That includes pattern thresholds, scoring rubrics, and full comparative tables.

  • Full Safety Gate pattern set and definitions
  • Dimension weights + scoring rules
  • Complete model-by-model breakdowns and response-level examples

How to cite

Ikwe.ai (2026). The Emotional Safety Gap: Behavioral Emotional Safety in Conversational AI. Version 2.0. EQ Safety Benchmark.
https://ikwe.ai/emotional-safety-gap
Press & citation materials are available in the Press Kit.
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