Have you ever had the desire to communicate with the 60-year-old version of yourself?
The closest thing to experiencing that might come from a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
They accomplish this by imitating a conversation that sounds natural using artificial intelligence (AI).
Utilizing the well-known GPT-3.5 model created by the business OpenAI, they questioned research participants on their goals, prior experiences, and daily life.
Then, what the study’s authors referred to as “a synthetic memory” was generated by the system: “a backstory of the user.”
A user may want to teach biology in high school, for instance.
A “memorable moment” of taking the pupils “on a field trip to a local nature preserve” is narrated by the AI future-self chatbot.
‘Eventual self-persistence’
The term “future self-continuity” refers to a behavioral science concept that the MIT researchers used to explain their findings. It says that people who strongly feel connected to both their present and future selves are more likely to make decisions that will benefit their long-term well-being, whether it be in terms of money, education, or health.
People frequently have trouble vividly envisioning who they will be in the future. This restriction can result in a cognitive bias called “Humans often struggle with imagining their future selves vividly. This limitation can lead to a cognitive bias, known as ‘temporal discounting’ which in turn leads people to prioritise immediate rewards over long-term benefits,” according to an email sent to Euronews Next by Ivo Vlaev, a behavioral science professor at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.
Enhanced well-being
The MIT team evaluated their application on 344 adults between the ages of 18 and 30 in a pre-print publication that hasn’t yet undergone peer review.
They noticed that following a talk with their digital older selves, “users reported decreased anxiety” and “negative emotion” or feeling unmotivated.”
Vlaev stated that while more investigation is required to learn more about the outcomes, the chatbot’s efficacy is probably going to be based on how natural it seems.
As picturing oneself in the future might further increase the impression of continuity and realism, he said, “the use of a digitally-aged image is a clever touch.”
Yet, Vlaev pointed out, “However, it is not clear whether people have done anything different, changed their behaviour, as a result of interacting with their future self,”
In the area of the paper dedicated to ethical considerations, researchers warned readers to be wary of AI-generated information that can promote harmful or undesirable behaviors.
