Project description
AI avatars for a healthier mind
Future-oriented thinking is positive. It can improve academic performance, overall well-being and financial stability and help to achieve personal goals. Researchers have previously used virtual reality and apps to create future-self avatars, which led to increased engagement and reduced depression and suicidal thoughts. Now the ERC-funded YourFutureU project will use AI to improve future orientation and addressing self-defeating behaviours. It will create an AI-powered conversational agent that enables meaningful interactions with one’s future self. The project expands on an earlier ERC Consolidator Grant by integrating behavioural and computer sciences, making mental health care more affordable and accessible.
Objective
This PoC action harnesses the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance future orientation and mental well-being, and to mitigate self-defeating behaviors. Building on recent evidence that future-oriented thinking —a key factor in academic performance, health, wealth, and goal achievement— can be stimulated, we aim to address the scaling and impact-related challenges of existing interventions. Leveraging the power of AI-powered large language models (LLMs), our proposed solution is to develop an intelligent conversational agent that allows for meaningful interaction with one's future self. This agent will utilize user-specific inputs —such as personality traits and other individual characteristics— to create a backstory of their personal history, i.e. a synthetic memory, and enable a highly personalized and relatable conversation between users and their future, i.e. 10-year older, self.
Frequent dialogues with the future self instill a more vivid image of the future self and increase the psychological connection to it. This in turn increases the motivation and ability to consider the longer-term consequences of decisions and reduces the likelihood that people opt for immediate gratification. This effort is facilitated by features known to enhance decision-making: perspective taking, a vivid mental image of the future, and the ability to distance oneself from situations.
Originating from our ERC CoG action, in which we used virtual reality technology and smartphone apps to generate future-self avatars, we have begun to see promising results, such as higher levels of engagement and a demonstrated capacity to stimulate future orientation as well as symptom reduction in depression and suicidal ideation. Expanding on this prior work, we aim to develop an innovative solution that integrates the behavioral sciences and computer science, making mental health care more affordable and accessible while addressing self-defeating behaviors in diverse populations.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-POC
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.