Home Want to talk to your future self? An AI tool has been created to do just that

Want to talk to your future self? An AI tool has been created to do just that

An AI tool that can look into the years ahead has been created called Future You which has been designed to improve future self-continuity.

The AI chat platform Future You has been created by a team of developers from a range of universities including Harvard, MIT, UCLA, and more.

It includes an LLM (large language model) that is able to generate a personalized backstory derived from a user’s biographical narrative and stated future goals. It’s within this backstop that a series of plausible future experiences are constructed, with these serving as prompts for real-time conversation generation.

The system also uses a StyleGAN model to create an avatar of the person using the AI which has been age-progressed so they can look at themselves in the future.

According to the researchers, “Research shows that people who feel a stronger connection to their future selves make better decisions today—they save more for retirement, perform better academically, and report higher overall well-being.”

How to use this AI time-machine-like tool, Future You?

The Future You AI is still in the research preview stage, but it is accessible through Google Search.

Due to it still being early in the process, users have to complete a survey which assesses how they’re feeling and alerts them to the fact the data will be collected for the study.

If you wish to take part, you can complete the survey and then input the password it brings up into the textbox. From there, a number of questions will be asked about your life and you can go through the process of the tool.

The team has already completed a pre-registered randomized controlled trial with 188 participants. They state this “demonstrated the system’s significant potential to alleviate anxiety, reduce lack of motivation, and strengthen future self-connection.”

The project has also reached people around the world, with over 60,000 users in 190 countries.

Featured Image: Screenshot from Massachusetts Institute of Technology YouTube video

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Sophie Atkinson
Tech Journalist

Sophie Atkinson is a UK-based journalist and content writer, as well as a founder of a content agency which focuses on storytelling through social media marketing. She kicked off her career with a Print Futures Award which champions young talent working in print, paper and publishing. Heading straight into a regional newsroom, after graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Journalism, Sophie started by working for Reach PLC. Now, with five years experience in journalism and many more in content marketing, Sophie works as a freelance writer and marketer. Her areas of specialty span a wide range, including technology, business,…

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