AI Simulation Gives People a Glance of Their Potential Future Self

In a preliminary user study, the scientists discovered that after engaging with Future You for about half an hour, individuals reported reduced anxiety and felt a stronger sense of connection with their future selves.

“We do not have an actual time machine yet, however AI can be a kind of virtual time maker. We can utilize this simulation to help individuals think more about the consequences 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 study 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; in addition to 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, professor of marketing, behavioral choice making, and psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. The research will exist at the IEEE Conference on Frontiers in Education.

A sensible simulation

Studies about conceptualizing one’s future self go back to at least the 1960s. One early method focused on improving future self-continuity had individuals write letters to their future selves. More recently, scientists utilized virtual reality goggles to help people envision future versions of themselves.

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

With the advent of generative AI and large language designs like ChatGPT, the scientists saw a chance to make a simulated future self that could go over somebody’s real goals and goals during a normal conversation.

“The system makes the simulation really reasonable. Future You is far more comprehensive than what a person could come up with by just envisioning their future selves,” states Maes.

Users start by responding to a series of concerns about their present lives, things that are essential to them, and objectives for the future.

The AI system utilizes this information to produce what the scientists call “future self memories” which supply a backstory the model pulls from when interacting with the user.

For example, the chatbot might talk about the highlights of someone’s future career or response questions about how the user overcame a specific challenge. This is possible due to the fact that ChatGPT has been trained on substantial data including individuals speaking about their lives, careers, and good and disappointments.

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

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

To help individuals envision their future selves, the system produces an age-progressed photo of the user. The chatbot is likewise developed to provide brilliant responses utilizing phrases like “when I was your age,” so the simulation feels more like a real future variation of the individual.

The capability to take guidance from an older variation of oneself, rather than a generic AI, can have a stronger positive effect on a user pondering an uncertain future, Hershfield says.

“The interactive, brilliant components of the platform give the user an anchor point and take something that could lead to distressed rumination and make it more concrete and productive,” he includes.

But that realism might backfire if the simulation relocates a negative instructions. To avoid this, they ensure Future You cautions users that it reveals only one possible version of their future self, and they have the firm to change their lives. Providing alternate responses to the survey yields a completely different conversation.

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

Aiding self-development

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

Participants who utilized Future You had the ability to build a better relationship with their perfect future selves, based upon an analytical analysis of their responses. These users also reported less stress and anxiety about the future after their interactions. In addition, Future You users said the discussion felt sincere and that their worths and beliefs appeared constant in their simulated future identities.

“This work forges a new course by taking a well-established psychological technique to imagine times to come – an avatar of the future self – with cutting edge AI. This is exactly the kind of work academics ought to be concentrating on as technology to develop virtual self designs combines with big language designs,” states Jeremy Bailenson, the Thomas More Storke Professor of Communication at Stanford University, who was not involved with this research.

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

“We desire to assist the user to discuss specific topics, instead of asking their future selves who the next president will be,” Pataranutaporn says.

They are likewise including safeguards to prevent people from misusing the system. For example, one might envision a company developing a “future you” of a potential consumer who attains some fantastic outcome in life due to the fact that they acquired a specific product.

Moving forward, the researchers wish to study particular applications of Future You, maybe by allowing people to check out different careers or visualize how their everyday options might affect environment change.

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

“We don’t want individuals to end up being based on this tool. Rather, we hope it is a significant experience that assists them see themselves and the world in a different way, and aids with self-development,” Maes says.