A team of AI researchers with members from several institutions in the U.S. and KASIKORN Labs, in Thailand, has built an AI-based chatbot that allows users to chat with a potential version of their future selves.

The group has published a paper on the arXiv preprint server describing the technology and how it has been received by volunteers who interacted with the system.

As chatbots grow more sophisticated, system builders have begun looking for new ways to use them. In this new effort, the team, based at MIT, built a chatbot that gives users a sense of their own fate by allowing them to chat with a potential future version of themselves.

Prior research has shown that when younger people spend time talking with older people, they often come away with a broader outlook on life and how their own future might unfold. Thinking that young people would benefit even more if they could talk to their future, older selves, the researchers set out to build a system that would mimic such an opportunity.

To create the chatbot, the researchers put together several modules, the first of which involved building a regular chatbot that asked users a series of questions about themselves and the people in their lives. It also asked about their background, their hopes and plans for the future and their vision of an idealized life.

The same chatbot also asked users to submit a current picture of themselves. A separate routine aged the photo, allowing the user to see what they might look like in the distant future.

The second module fed the information from the first module to a separate language module that generated “memories” based on experiences of others that were mixed with some of the events and experiences of the original user.

The third module was the future chatbot. It applied the results of the first two modules as it interacted with the same user, giving future, experienced-based answers to questions.

The research team tested the system using themselves as guinea pigs and then asked 344 volunteers to give it a go as well and report how it went.

The research team found mostly positive results—most users reported feeling more optimistic about their future and more connected to their future selves. And one of the researchers, after a session with the new bot, found himself more aware of the limited amount of time he would have with his parents and began to spend more time with them.

© 2024 Science X Network

Apple on Monday unveiled “Apple Intelligence,” its suite of new AI features for its coveted devices—and a partnership with OpenAI—as it seeks to catch up to rivals racing ahead on adopting the white-hot technology.

For months, pressure has been on Apple to persuade doubters on its AI strategy, after Microsoft and Google rolled out products in rapid-fire succession.

But this latest move will take the experience of Apple products “to new heights,” chief executive Tim Cook said as he opened an annual Worldwide Developers Conference at the tech giant’s headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, California.

To help towards that end, Apple has partnered with OpenAI, which ushered in a new era for generative artificial intelligence in 2022 with the arrival of ChatGPT.

OpenAI was “very happy to be partnering with Apple to integrate ChatGPT into their devices later this year! Think you will really like it,” posted the company’s chief Sam Altman on social media.

Apple Intelligence will also be added to a new version of the iOS 18 operating system, similarly unveiled Monday at the week-long conference.

Apple executives stressed privacy safeguards have been built into Apple Intelligence to make its Siri digital assistant and other products smarter, without pilfering user data.

The big challenge for Apple has been how to infuse ChatGPT-style AI—which voraciously feeds off data—into its products without weakening its heavily promoted user privacy and security, according to analysts.

The system “puts powerful generative models right at the core of your iPhone, iPad and Mac,” said Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi.

“It draws on your personal context to give you intelligence that’s most helpful and relevant for you, and it protects your privacy at every step.”

But Tesla and SpaceX tycoon Elon Musk lashed out at the partnership, saying the threat to data security will make him ban iPhones at his companies.

“Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river,” Musk said in a post on social media.

Musk is building his own rival to OpenAI, xAI, and is suing the company that he helped found in 2015.

Apple Intelligence, which runs only on the company’s in-house technology, will enable users to create their own emojis based on a description in everyday language, or to generate brief summaries of e-mails in the mailbox.

Apple said Siri, its voice assistant, will also get an AI infused upgrade and now will appear as a pulsating light on the edge of your home screen.

Launched over 12 years ago, Siri has long since been seen as a dated feature, overtaken by the new generation of assistants, such as GPT-4o, OpenAI’s latest offering.

GPT-4o grabbed the headlines last month when actress Scarlett Johansson accused OpenAI of copying her voice to embody the assistant after she turned down an offer to work with the company.

OpenAI has denied this, but suspended the use of the new voice in its products.

ChatGPT on offer

In its deal with OpenAI, users can choose to enhance Siri on certain requests with ChatGPT, Federighi said.

“It sounds like it’s Apple—then if it needs ChatGPT, it offers it to you,” Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart said.

“The implementation is what is special here.”

The partnership with OpenAI was not exclusive, unlike Apple’s landmark tie-up with Google for search, which has drawn the scrutiny of antitrust regulators.

Apple said it expected to announce support for other AI models in the future.

The company founded by Steve Jobs had remained very quiet on AI since the start of the ChatGPT-sparked frenzy, with Apple for a while avoiding the term altogether.

But the pressure became too great, with Wall Street propelling Microsoft past Apple as the world’s biggest company when measured by stock price, largely because of the Windows-maker’s unabashed embrace of AI.

Wall Street investors were not overly impressed by the AI announcements, with Apple’s share price down nearly two percent at the close on Monday.

© 2024 AFP

Including “tactile emoticons” into social media communications can enhance communication, according to a study published June 12, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Alkistis Saramandi and Yee Ki Au from University College London, United Kingdom, and colleagues.

Digital communications rely exclusively on visual and auditory cues (text, emoticons, videos, and music) to convey tone and emotion. Currently lacking from these platforms is touch, which can convey feelings of love and support, impact emotions, and influence behaviors.

Technology companies are developing devices to incorporate touch into digital interactions, such as interactive kiss and hug transmission devices. These social touch devices can elicit feelings of closeness and positive emotions, but the effect of touch in social media communication is not well studied.

In this study, researchers incorporated tactile emoticons into social media interactions. Using a mock social media platform, participants were given posts to send that expressed either positive or negative emotions. They then received feedback via visual emoticons (e.g., a heart or thumbs up), tactile emoticons (a stroke on the forearm by either another person or a robotic device), or both.

Participants felt greater feelings of support and approval when they received the tactile emoticons compared to the visual-only feedback. This suggests that social touch, even by a stranger, can convey meaning without any other accompanying communication. Feedback consisting of both visual and tactile emoticons was preferred over either type of emoticon alone.

The researchers noted that touch could offer additional context to visual emoticons, which can be misinterpreted. They also found that the type of touch matters. Touch delivered at a speed that activates the C-Tactile nervous system, which produces positive emotions associated with touching or embracing, was experienced more favorably than other types of touch.

According to the authors, this is the first study to explore the role of touch in communicating emotions via social media. They hope that the results can inform the development of devices to deliver touch during digital communications.

The authors add, “Touch has long been essential to human bonding and survival, yet in our digitized world we are more isolated and touch-deprived than ever. What if we could use ‘digitalized touch‘ to bring us closer in communicating emotions in today’s world?”