When answering personality questionnaires, the AI clones’ responses differed little from their human counterparts. They performed particularly well when it came to reproducing answers to personality questionnaires and determining social attitudes. But they were less accurate when it came to predicting behavior in interactive games that involved economic decisions.
A question of purpose
The impetus for the development of the simulation agents was the possibility of using them to conduct studies that would be expensive, impractical, or unethical with real human subjects, the scientists explain. For example, the AI models could help to evaluate the effectiveness of public health measures or better understand reactions to product launches. Even modeling reactions to important social events would be conceivable, according to the researchers.
“General-purpose simulation of human attitudes and behavior—where each simulated person can engage across a range of social, political, or informational contexts—could enable a laboratory for researchers to test a broad set of interventions and theories,” the researchers write.