AI Simulation Gives People a Look of Their Potential Future Self

In an initial user study, the scientists found that after communicating 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 do not have an actual time device yet, however AI can be a kind of virtual time maker. We can utilize this simulation to assist individuals think more about the repercussions of the options they are making today,” states Pat Pataranutaporn, a recent Media Lab doctoral graduate who is actively developing a program to advance human-AI interaction research at MIT, and co-lead author of a paper on Future You.

Pataranutaporn is signed up with on the paper by co-lead authors Kavin Winson, a scientist 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 decision making, and psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. The research study will be presented at the IEEE Conference on Frontiers in Education.

A sensible simulation

Studies about conceptualizing one’s future self go back to a minimum of the 1960s. One early method targeted at improving future self-continuity had people write letters to their future selves. More just recently, researchers used virtual truth safety glasses to assist people imagine future variations of themselves.

But none of these techniques were really interactive, restricting the effect they could have on a user.

With the development of generative AI and large language models like ChatGPT, the researchers saw an opportunity to make a simulated future self that might go over someone’s actual objectives and aspirations during a regular discussion.

“The system makes the simulation very reasonable. Future You is far more in-depth than what an individual might come up with by simply imagining their future selves,” states Maes.

Users start by addressing a series of questions about their existing lives, things that are important to them, and objectives for the future.

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

For instance, the chatbot might talk about the highlights of someone’s future profession or response questions about how the user overcame a particular challenge. This is possible due to the fact that ChatGPT has been trained on extensive information involving individuals talking about their lives, careers, and excellent and disappointments.

The user engages with the tool in 2 methods: through introspection, when they consider their life and objectives as they build their future selves, and revision, when they ponder whether the simulation shows who they see themselves ending up being, says Yin.

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

To help individuals picture their future selves, the system creates an age-progressed image of the user. The chatbot is also designed to offer vivid answers using phrases like “when I was your age,” so the simulation feels more like a real future version of the person.

The capability to listen from an older version of oneself, rather than a generic AI, can have a more powerful positive influence on a user contemplating an unpredictable future, Hershfield states.

“The interactive, vibrant parts of the platform provide the user an anchor point and take something that might lead to anxious rumination and make it more concrete and efficient,” he adds.

But that realism might backfire if the simulation moves in an unfavorable direction. To avoid this, they guarantee Future You warns users that it shows just one prospective version of their future self, and they have the agency to alter their lives. Providing alternate responses to the questionnaire yields a totally various conversation.

“This is not a prophesy, however rather a possibility,” Pataranutaporn says.

Aiding self-development

To examine Future You, they performed a user research study with 344 individuals. Some users interacted with the system for 10-30 minutes, while others either engaged with a generic chatbot or just completed studies.

Participants who utilized Future You had the ability to build a more detailed relationship with their ideal future selves, based on an analytical analysis of their responses. These users also reported less anxiety about the future after their interactions. In addition, Future You users stated the discussion felt genuine and that their worths and beliefs seemed constant in their simulated future identities.

“This work forges a brand-new course by taking a reputable mental method to envision times to come – an avatar of the future self – with cutting edge AI. This is precisely the type of work academics must be focusing on as innovation to construct virtual self designs merges with big language designs,” states Jeremy Bailenson, the Thomas More Storke Professor of Communication at Stanford University, who was not included with this research.

Building off the results of this initial user study, the scientists continue to fine-tune the ways they establish context and prime users so they have discussions that assist develop a more powerful sense of future self-continuity.

“We desire to direct the user to discuss certain topics, instead of asking their future selves who the next president will be,” Pataranutaporn states.

They are likewise including safeguards to prevent individuals from misusing the system. For circumstances, one could envision a company developing a “future you” of a who accomplishes some terrific outcome in life because they purchased a particular product.

Moving on, the scientists wish to study specific applications of Future You, possibly by enabling individuals to explore different professions or visualize how their daily options could affect climate change.

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

“We do not want people to become based on this tool. Rather, we hope it is a significant experience that helps them see themselves and the world differently, and assists with self-development,” Maes says.