🧠 Chatting with Your AI Future Self

TL;DR: Interacting with an AI-generated future self reduced anxiety and increased future self-continuity i.e. sense of connection to a distant future self.

🎓 Researchers

• Pat Pataranutaporn – Researcher at the MIT Media Lab

• Kavin Winson – Researcher at KASIKORN Labs, KBGT, Thailand

• Peggy Yin – Researcher at Harvard University

• Auttasak Lapapirojn – Researcher at KASIKORN Labs, KBGT, Thailand

• Pichayoot Ouppaphan – Researcher at KASIKORN Labs, KBGT, Thailand

• Monchai Lertsutthiwong – Researcher at KASIKORN LabsKBGT, Thailand

• Pattie Maes – Professor at MIT Media Lab

• Hal E. Hershfield – Professor at Anderson School of Management, UCLA
  

Who is this relevant for?
Policy teams, Financial advisors, Sustainability advocates, Marketing & communication teams, L&D teams, Coaches, Product Researchers, Designers and anyone interested in goal alignment for supporting long-term decisions.

📚 The Evidence

Participants engaged with their 60-year-old selves in a realistic, AI-powered conversation tailored to their personal life history, goals and values. The preregistered study (N = 344) compared participants who interacted with their AI future self to various control groups.

Start Chatting with Your Future Self

Research: Pataranutaporn, Pat, Kavin Winson, Peggy Yin, Auttasak Lapapirojn, Pichayoot Ouppaphan, Monchai Lertsutthiwong, Pattie Maes, and Hal Hershfield. "Future You: A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions, and Increases Future Self-Continuity." arXiv preprint

DOI (Access the FULL paper): arXiv:2405.12514

📊 Key Results

• Reduced Anxiety: Participants in the "Future You" condition reported a decrease in anxiety of 0.68 points and negative emotions overall decreased by 0.63 points on average.

• Enhanced Future Self-Continuity: Feelings of similarity and vividness about the future self increased significantly, with similarity rising by 0.58 points and future self-continuity improving by 0.42 points compared to controls.

👉🏾 Vishal’s Strategies for Behaviour Change

1. Close the Gap: Engaging with AI-generated future selves makes long-term goals more visible and boosts motivation for long-term decision making. For instance, in finance, chatting with your AI future self about your ideal lifestyle can help you create personalised financial plans for retirement.

2. Value-Based Nudges: AI can personalise feedback to align actions with core values, generating self-nudges for change. For example, in sustainability, discussing your spending options with an AI assistant can help you get practical ideas to reduce your carbon footprint.

3. Personal Mentors: Conversing with AI about goals offers clarity on aspirations and learning paths. For instance, an AI L&D mentor can identify skills required for your dream roles and suggest pathways for career development.

🧪 Footnote on experimentation

Evidence evolves over time and rarely works across all contexts—start with a small experiment to find out what works for your specific challenge and audience. Try our FREE tools to get started with your journey of behavioural innovation.