# Reflecting Twice before Speaking with Empathy: Self-Reflective Alternating Inference for Empathy-Aware End-to-End Spoken Dialogue

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.18281 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.18281/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 21 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Moshi: a speech-text foundation model for real-time dialogue](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.00037/) (2024)
- [AudioGPT: Understanding and Generating Speech, Music, Sound, and Talking Head](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.12995/) (2023)
- [GLM-4-Voice: Towards Intelligent and Human-Like End-to-End Spoken Chatbot](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02612/) (2024)
- [Generalization Ability of MOS Prediction Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.02635/) (2021)
- [DeSTA2.5-Audio: Toward General-Purpose Large Audio Language Model with Self-Generated Cross-Modal Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02768/) (2025)
- [DeSTA2: Developing Instruction-Following Speech Language Model Without Speech Instruction-Tuning Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.20007/) (2024)
- [BLSP-Emo: Towards Empathetic Large Speech-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.03872/) (2024)
- [Reflect, Retry, Reward: Self-Improving LLMs via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24726/) (2025)
- [ParaS2S: Benchmarking and Aligning Spoken Language Models for Paralinguistic-aware Speech-to-Speech Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.08723/) (2025)
- [OSUM-EChat: Enhancing End-to-End Empathetic Spoken Chatbot via Understanding-Driven Spoken Dialogue](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09600/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Resurfacing Paralinguistic Awareness in Large Audio Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.11947/) (2026)
- [Listening to the Echo: User-Reaction Aware Policy Optimization via Scalar-Verbal Hybrid Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.15434/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

End-to-end Spoken Language Models (SLMs) hold great potential for paralinguistic perception, and numerous studies have aimed to enhance their capabilities, particularly for empathetic dialogue. However, current approaches largely depend on rigid supervised signals, such as ground-truth response in supervised fine-tuning or preference scores in reinforcement learning. Such reliance is fundamentally limited for modeling complex empathy, as there is no single "correct" response and a simple numerical score cannot fully capture the nuances of emotional expression or the appropriateness of empathetic behavior. To address these limitations, we sequentially introduce EmpathyEval, a descriptive natural-language-based evaluation model for assessing empathetic quality in spoken dialogues. Building upon EmpathyEval, we propose ReEmpathy, an end-to-end SLM that enhances empathetic dialogue through a novel Empathetic Self-Reflective Alternating Inference mechanism, which interleaves spoken response generation with free-form, empathy-related reflective reasoning. Extensive experiments demonstrate that ReEmpathy substantially improves empathy-sensitive spoken dialogue by enabling reflective reasoning, offering a promising approach toward more emotionally intelligent and empathy-aware human-computer interactions.