Thanks to this technology from MIT, your “future you” is able to talk to you: what advice will he give you?

JVTech News Thanks to this technology from MIT, your “future you” is able to talk to you: what advice will he give you?

If you could talk to an older version of yourself, what would you ask them? This question could be the starting point for a science fiction film. But yet, it is anchored in a certain reality. Indeed, researchers from MIT have been working on the question, with other scientists based in Thailand. Drawing inspiration from previous studies suggesting “the degree of continuity an individual feels with their future self”the researchers looked at the possibility of chatting, today, with an older version of ourselves. And without much surprise, artificial intelligence has a big place in this experience.

The creation of an older digital double

The experiment is still underway at MIT. People selected to participate had to answer a meticulous questionnaire which included many questions concerning the personal qualities of the guinea pig, their aspirations for the future, or even their entourage. The question of the ideal of future life is also clearly raised. Then, the algorithms developed by the researchers use all the information to create a virtual avatar that represents the user several decades from now.

“Your future self is NOT a prophecy: it is a story of a potential version of the future generated from a broad language model that was personalized to your initial survey responses. The future yourself cannot predict specific details about your future life: it aims to paint a vivid and realistic picture of what your future could be like., explains the project page.

An experience that has potential, but…

The idea of ​​talking to an older version of yourself can be appealing. However, the researchers behind the approach are very clear that we should not expect too much. This is explained in particular by the fact that this aged digital double is based solely on the information given by the tester. “Therefore, it only reflects the data you put into the survey, and its responses are still subject to the training data it was originally trained on. »

So what is the purpose of all this? MIT scientists are investigating whether chatting with an avatar meant to represent us in the future can influence our different decision-making in different areas. “Our interactive online discussion platform seeks to help users develop longer-term thinking and behavior by strengthening their relationship with a consistent, yet virtual, version of an older self. »

A priori, the platform developed by the researchers is not intended to be offered publicly, at least not immediately. However, we can expect to soon be able to discover the results of this astonishing study.