Scientists create the world’s first ’empathetic’ robot

Not consciousness-related, so I could not post this in the other part of the forum.

Scientists create the world’s first ’empathetic’ robot

What they did:

a robot designed by researchers at Columbia University in New York has learned to predict its partner robot’s future actions based on watching its movements

What the journalists SAID they did:

Although it’s still very early days, scientists hailed a breakthrough after claiming to have developed, for the first time, a robot which they say demonstrates elements of empathy – the act of being aware of and experiencing the feelings and thoughts of others,

My comment. It seems tricky to do these things on behalf of an other, when the robot cannot do these things itself.