Future You: A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions, and Increases Future Self-Continuity

We introduce “Future You,” an interactive, brief, single-session, digital chat intervention designed to improve future self-continuity-the degree of connection an individual feels with a temporally distant future selfa characteristic that is positively related to mental health and wellbeing. Our system allows users to chat with a relatable yet AI-powered virtual version of their future selves that is tuned to their future goals and personal qualities. To make the conversation realistic, the system generates a “future memory”-a unique backstory for each user-that creates a throughline between the user's present age (between 18–30) and their life at age 60. The “Future You” character also adopts the persona of an age-progressed image of the user. In our preregistered study <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\mathrm{N}=344)$</tex>, we found that after a brief interaction with the “Future You” character, users reported significantly decreased anxiety and increased future self-continuity compared to control conditions. This is the first study successfully demonstrating the use of personalized AI-generated characters to improve users' future self-continuity and wellbeing.