The project was a test to see how artificial intelligence might change one of the most delicate types of human interaction: the interpersonal apology. The companies who make AI-powered chatbots suggest we should find ways to insert them into our lives when we don’t know what to say or how to say it. That’s all well and good when responding to an unimportant email. But what about tasks that involve a mastery of subtle human interactions? Can you use a tool like ChatGPT to write better apologies? For that matter, should you?

“A couple of things were important,” Cerulo says. Shorter apologies worked better. People liked seeing the victims discussed first, even before the description of the harmful act. Less explanation of the offender’s behaviour was typically more effective – otherwise it came off as justification. And the apologiser needed to end with restitution, promising to do better or explaining a plan to make things right. “It’s pretty simple,” Cerulo says, “but people still have a hard time doing it”.

Sometimes that’s because apologisers are worried about consequences. Admissions of guilt may even come with legal repercussions with a serious offense. But most often, Cerulo says the problem is people don’t want to accept that they’ve made a mistake. Apologising can feel like it lowers your social status. Pride gets in the way.

That may give AI an advantage. Robots don’t have pride to worry about. And if apologies are formulaic on some level, that’s just the kind of thing the statistical machines of AI should be able to handle.