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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

TL;DR

This is the first study successfully demonstrating the use of personalized AI-generated characters to improve users' future self-continuity and wellbeing.

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.

Future You: A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions, and Increases Future Self-Continuity

TL;DR

This is the first study successfully demonstrating the use of personalized AI-generated characters to improve users' future self-continuity and wellbeing.

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.
Paper Structure (17 sections, 3 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 17 sections, 3 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Reflective Intervention
  4. Presentational Intervention
  5. Methodology
  6. Life Story Interface
  7. Age-progressed AI
  8. Future Memory Architecture
  9. Chat Interface
  10. Experiment
  11. Measurements
  12. Analysis
  13. Approvals
  14. Results
  15. Discussion
  16. ...and 2 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: “Future You” is an interactive chat platform that allows users to converse with a relatable yet virtual version of their future selves in real-time. This is achieved through a large language model that has been personalized based on a pre-intervention survey focused on users' future goals and personal qualities. To make the conversation realistic, the system generates an individualized “future memory” for each user's future self, containing a backstory for the user at age 60. To increase the believability of the future self character, the system age-progresses the user's submitted headshot.
  • Figure 2: Our Future You system consists of four modules: Life Story Interface, Age-Progressed AI, Future Memory Architecture, and Chat Interface.
  • Figure 3: After interacting with the “Future You” character, users reported reduced negative emotions such as anxiety and unmotivated feelings, and increased future self-continuity.