‘Future You’ AI lets you speak to a 60-year-old version of yourself and it has surprising wellbeing benefits [Video]

For the first time, people can talk with an older version of themselves about their lives and aspirations, using an advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot, complete with a photographic avatar of their future face.

The Future You project, created by researchers at MIT Media Lab and international collaborators, uses AI to create a simulation of a user’s 60- to 70-year-old self. They detailed the project in a paper published Oct. 1 to the preprint database arXiv.

Users can converse with the AI through a text interface on topics such as how to achieve what they want in life based on their circumstances, beliefs and outlook. It was devised to give people a sense of being connected to their future self, scientists said in the paper.

Study co-author Hal Hershfield, a professor of marketing, behavioral decision-making and psychology at UCLA, said the ability to take advice from your older self instead of …