I chatted to an MIT-built AI version of my future, 60-year-old self and we did NOT get along

pcgamer.com:

There's a reason time travel stories are so popular; given the opportunity to either reach backwards through time and right some wrongs, or peek ahead to see how it all turns out, I reckon many would jump at the chance. However, this story definitely isn't about time travel. Instead, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a chatbot that pretends to be your future 60-year-old self.

Called Future You, the chatbot uses survey answers from human participants in conjunction with a large language model (LLM) AI to create the illusion of having a natter with an older version of yourself. This project uses GPT3.5 from OpenAI, a company that continues to refine its LLMs so that they hallucinate less and may even count up to three. Future You itself was also inspired by a study investigating how increased «future self-continuity»—which, to put it non-academically, can be described as how well someone realises that their future is now—may positively influence a wide array of life choices and behaviour in the present.

I'm not gonna lie, when I first heard about this AI chatbot my first thought was the iconic musical sting from this year's biggest body horror hit The Substance. My second thought was the lampooning of digital doppelgangers in the Adult Swim short Live Forever As You Are Now With Alan Resnick. But my third thought was «Yeah, sure, I'll hand over my personal details and most vulnerable anxieties about the future to MIT. For science.»

Before chatting to my 60-year-old self, I was asked a series of survey questions about my now and what I'm hoping will be my then. Imagining the future I want for myself is a therapeutic exercise all on its own, and feels fairly in line with the researchers' goals of creating a chatbot designed to help «support young people in envisioning their futures.» I then had to upload a clear picture of my face so Future You can throw an old age filter over the top to complete the illusion. At least my