Future You: A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions, and Increases Future Self-Continuity
Pat Pataranutaporn, Kavin Winson, Peggy Yin, Auttasak Lapapirojn, Pichayoot Ouppaphan, Monchai Lertsutthiwong, Pattie Maes, Hal Hershfield
Abstract
We introduce “Future You,” an interactive, brief, single-session, digital chat intervention designed to improve future self-continuity–the degree of connection an individual feels with a temporally distant future self–a characteristic that is positively related to mental health and wellbeing. Our system allows users to chat with a relatable yet AI-powered virtual version of their future selves that is tuned to their future goals and personal qualities. To make the conversation realistic, the system generates a “synthetic memory”–a unique backstory for each user–that creates a throughline between the user’s present age (between 18-30) and their life at age 60. The “Future You” character also adopts the persona of an age-progressed image of the user’s present self. After a brief interaction with the “Future You” character, users reported decreased anxiety, and increased future self-continuity. This is the first study successfully demonstrating the use of personalized AI-generated characters to improve users’ future self-continuity and wellbeing.
Keywords: Future Self-Continuity, AI-Generated Character, Large Language Model, Generative AI, Mental Health.
Subjects: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Reference: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.12514
