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  • Founded Date July 14, 2023
  • Sectors Health Care
  • Posted Jobs 0
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AI Simulation Gives People a Peek of Their Potential Future Self

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

“We don’t have an actual time machine yet, but AI can be a type of virtual time device. We can utilize this simulation to assist individuals think more about the effects 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 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 scientist at KASIKORN Labs; and Peggy Yin, a Harvard University undergraduate; along with 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 conceiving one’s future self go back to a minimum of the 1960s. One early technique aimed at enhancing future self-continuity had people write letters to their future selves. More just recently, researchers made use of virtual truth goggles to help individuals visualize future variations of themselves.

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

With the development of generative AI and big language models like ChatGPT, the scientists saw a chance to make a simulated future self that could discuss somebody’s actual objectives and goals throughout a normal conversation.

“The system makes the simulation extremely reasonable. Future You is far more in-depth than what an individual could come up with by simply envisioning their future selves,” says Maes.

Users begin by answering a series of questions about their present lives, things that are very important to them, and goals for the future.

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

For example, the chatbot could speak about the highlights of somebody’s future career or response questions about how the user conquered a specific difficulty. This is possible since ChatGPT has been trained on substantial information including individuals talking about their lives, professions, and great and disappointments.

The user engages with the tool in two methods: through introspection, when they consider their life and goals as they construct their future selves, and retrospection, when they ponder whether the simulation shows who they see themselves becoming, states Yin.

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

To assist individuals imagine their future selves, the system generates an age-progressed image of the user. The chatbot is likewise designed to offer vibrant answers using phrases like “when I was your age,” so the simulation feels more like a real future variation of the person.

The capability to take recommendations from an older version of oneself, instead of a generic AI, can have a more powerful positive effect on a user pondering an unsure future, Hershfield says.

“The interactive, vibrant elements of the platform offer the user an anchor point and take something that could lead to anxious rumination and make it more concrete and productive,” he includes.

But that realism could backfire if the simulation moves in an unfavorable direction. To prevent this, they ensure Future You warns users that it reveals just one prospective variation of their future self, and they have the agency to alter their lives. Providing alternate responses 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 carried out a user research study with 344 people. Some users interacted with the system for 10-30 minutes, while others either communicated with a generic chatbot or just submitted studies.

Participants who used Future You had the ability to construct a better relationship with their perfect future selves, based upon a statistical analysis of their reactions. These users also reported less anxiety about the future after their interactions. In addition, Future You users said the conversation felt genuine which their values and beliefs appeared consistent in their simulated future identities.

“This work forges a brand-new path by taking a reputable psychological method to picture times to come – an avatar of the future self – with cutting edge AI. This is exactly the type of work academics should be concentrating on as technology to build virtual self designs combines with big 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 outcomes of this initial user study, the scientists continue to tweak the methods they establish context and prime users so they have discussions that help construct a stronger sense of future self-continuity.

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

They are also adding safeguards to prevent individuals from misusing the system. For instance, one might think of a a “future you” of a possible customer who accomplishes some fantastic outcome in life because they bought a specific item.

Moving forward, the scientists wish to study particular applications of Future You, possibly by allowing individuals to check out various professions or visualize how their daily options might impact environment change.

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

“We don’t want individuals to become reliant on this tool. Rather, we hope it is a meaningful experience that assists them see themselves and the world in a different way, and aids with self-development,” Maes states.

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