AI Simulation Gives People a Glimpse of Their Potential Future Self

In an initial user research study, the scientists found that after engaging with Future You for about half an hour, people reported reduced anxiety and felt a more powerful sense of connection with their future selves.

“We don’t have a real time maker yet, however AI can be a kind of virtual time device. We can utilize this simulation to assist individuals believe more about the repercussions of the choices they are making today,” states Pat Pataranutaporn, a current Media Lab doctoral graduate who is actively establishing a program to advance human-AI interaction research study at MIT, and co-lead author of a paper on Future You.

Pataranutaporn is joined on the paper by co-lead authors Kavin Winson, a researcher at KASIKORN Labs; and Peggy Yin, a Harvard University undergrad; as well as Auttasak Lapapirojn and Pichayoot Ouppaphan of KASIKORN Labs; and senior authors Monchai Lertsutthiwong, head of AI research study at the KASIKORN Business-Technology Group; Pattie Maes, the Germeshausen Professor of Media, Arts, and Sciences and head of the Fluid Interfaces group at MIT, and Hal Hershfield, teacher of marketing, behavioral choice making, and psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. The research study will exist at the IEEE Conference on Frontiers in Education.

A realistic simulation

Studies about conceptualizing one’s future self return to at least the 1960s. One early approach aimed at improving future self-continuity had individuals compose letters to their future selves. More just recently, researchers made use of virtual reality safety glasses to assist people picture future versions of themselves.

But none of these approaches were extremely interactive, limiting the impact they could have on a user.

With the introduction of generative AI and big language designs like ChatGPT, the researchers saw an opportunity to make a simulated future self that could go over someone’s real goals and aspirations during a regular conversation.

“The system makes the simulation extremely reasonable. Future You is a lot more in-depth than what a person could create by simply envisioning their future selves,” states Maes.

Users begin by responding to a series of about their existing lives, things that are necessary to them, and goals for the future.

The AI system uses this details to create what the researchers call “future self memories” which supply a backstory the model pulls from when engaging with the user.

For circumstances, the chatbot could speak about the highlights of someone’s future career or answer questions about how the user overcame a specific challenge. This is possible because ChatGPT has been trained on extensive data including people discussing their lives, professions, and good and bad experiences.

The user engages with the tool in 2 ways: through self-questioning, when they consider their life and goals as they construct their future selves, and retrospection, when they contemplate whether the simulation reflects who they see themselves becoming, states Yin.

“You can imagine Future You as a story search area. You have a chance to hear how some of your experiences, which might still be mentally charged for you now, might be metabolized throughout time,” she says.

To assist individuals envision their future selves, the system produces an age-progressed image of the user. The chatbot is also developed to provide vivid responses utilizing phrases like “when I was your age,” so the simulation feels more like an actual future version of the person.

The capability to take guidance from an older version of oneself, instead of a generic AI, can have a more powerful positive impact on a user considering an uncertain future, Hershfield says.

“The interactive, vivid components of the platform provide the user an anchor point and take something that could result in anxious rumination and make it more concrete and productive,” he includes.

But that realism might backfire if the simulation relocates an unfavorable direction. To avoid this, they guarantee Future You cautions users that it reveals just one potential version of their future self, and they have the company to change their lives. Providing alternate answers to the survey yields a completely different conversation.

“This is not a prophesy, but rather a possibility,” Pataranutaporn states.

Aiding self-development

To examine Future You, they carried out a user study with 344 people. Some users engaged with the system for 10-30 minutes, while others either interacted with a generic chatbot or only completed surveys.

Participants who utilized Future You had the ability to construct a better relationship with their perfect future selves, based on an analytical analysis of their actions. These users also reported less stress and anxiety about the future after their interactions. In addition, Future You users said the conversation felt sincere which their worths and beliefs appeared consistent in their simulated future identities.

“This work creates a new path by taking a reputable psychological method to envision times to come – an avatar of the future self – with cutting edge AI. This is precisely the kind of work academics need to be concentrating on as technology to develop virtual self designs merges with large language designs,” states Jeremy Bailenson, the Thomas More Storke Professor of Communication at Stanford University, who was not involved with this research study.

Building off the outcomes of this preliminary user research study, the scientists continue to tweak the ways they develop context and prime users so they have conversations that assist construct a stronger sense of future self-continuity.

“We wish to assist the user to talk about certain subjects, rather than asking their future selves who the next president will be,” Pataranutaporn says.

They are also adding safeguards to avoid individuals from misusing the system. For example, one could think of a company producing a “future you” of a prospective consumer who attains some excellent outcome in life because they acquired a particular item.

Moving on, the researchers wish to study specific applications of Future You, perhaps by enabling people to explore different professions or envision how their everyday options might impact climate change.

They are likewise gathering data from the Future You pilot to better comprehend how individuals utilize the system.

“We don’t want people to become dependent on this tool. Rather, we hope it is a meaningful experience that helps them see themselves and the world differently, and assists with self-development,” Maes says.