AI Simulation Gives People a Look of Their Potential Future Self

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

“We don’t have an actual time maker yet, however AI can be a type of virtual time device. We can use this simulation to help people think more about the consequences of the options they are making today,” says Pat Pataranutaporn, a recent 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 signed up with 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 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 will exist at the IEEE Conference on Frontiers in Education.

A practical simulation

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

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

With the advent of generative AI and big language models like ChatGPT, the researchers saw a chance to make a simulated future self that might talk about someone’s actual goals and aspirations throughout a regular discussion.

“The system makes the simulation very realistic. Future You is far more comprehensive than what a person might develop by just picturing their future selves,” says Maes.

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

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

For circumstances, the chatbot might discuss the highlights of somebody’s future profession or answer questions about how the user conquered a specific challenge. This is possible due to the fact that ChatGPT has actually been trained on comprehensive data involving individuals talking about their lives, careers, and good and disappointments.

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

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

To assist people envision their future selves, the system creates an age-progressed picture of the user. The chatbot is also developed to offer vivid responses utilizing expressions like “when I was your age,” so the simulation feels more like an actual future variation of the person.

The ability 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 unsure future, Hershfield states.

“The interactive, vibrant elements of the platform provide the user an anchor point and take something that could result in nervous rumination and make it more concrete and efficient,” he includes.

But that realism might backfire if the simulation moves in a negative instructions. To prevent this, they ensure 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 questionnaire yields a completely various discussion.

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

Aiding self-development

To examine Future You, they conducted 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 just submitted studies.

Participants who utilized Future You were able to build a more detailed relationship with their perfect future selves, based upon an analytical analysis of their reactions. These users likewise reported less stress and about the future after their interactions. In addition, Future You users stated the discussion felt genuine which their values and beliefs appeared consistent in their simulated future identities.

“This work forges a new path by taking a reputable psychological strategy to imagine times to come – an avatar of the future self – with cutting edge AI. This is exactly the type of work academics must be concentrating on as technology to develop virtual self designs combines with large language designs,” states Jeremy Bailenson, the Thomas More Storke Professor of Communication at Stanford University, who was not included with this research study.

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

“We want to guide the user to talk about specific subjects, instead of asking their future selves who the next president will be,” Pataranutaporn says.

They are likewise including safeguards to avoid people from misusing the system. For example, one might envision a business developing a “future you” of a possible customer who accomplishes some fantastic result in life due to the fact that they bought a particular item.

Moving forward, the scientists want to study particular applications of Future You, possibly by making it possible for individuals to check out different professions or visualize how their daily options might affect climate change.

They are likewise collecting data from the Future You pilot to much better understand how individuals utilize the system.

“We don’t want individuals to become based on this tool. Rather, we hope it is a significant experience that helps them see themselves and the world differently, and aids with self-development,” Maes states.