Recent studies confirm that you're better off finding a human therapist. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Millions of people use AI systems every day, for all kinds of reasons. And it's hard to deny they can be useful at times.

She needs to be spoken to slowly and clearly, as you'd talk to an aged relative with diminished faculties. '"Alexa, how long do wasps live for?" "Alexa, how long do wasps live if you hit them with a tea towel and then a saucepan?" In September 2016, a new presence appears in our house, squatting on the kitchen counter between the kettle and the coffee machine. It is blandly futuristic, a minimal cylinder with an LED ring that glows blue to alert us to the fact that it is ready, poised to answer our questions or carry out our instructions, as long as those instructions are clearly stated and fall within a narrow band of available "skills".

While scientists haven't invented a time machine just yet, there is now a way for you to get some much-needed advice from your older self. Experts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created Future You – an AI-powered chatbot that simulates a version of the user at 60 years old. The researchers say that a quick chat with your future self is just what people need to start thinking more about their decisions in the present. With an aged-up profile picture and a full life's worth of synthetic memories, the chatbot delivers plausible stories about the user's life alongside sage wisdom from the future. And, in a trial of 334 volunteers, just a short conversation with the chatbot left users feeling less anxious and more connected to their future selves.

The next time you lie in bed and absent-mindedly ask your old friend Google for a piece of life advice, don't be surprised if it speaks back to you. DeepMind, the tech firm's artificial intelligence arm, has announced it is testing a new tool that could soon become a "personal life coach". The project will use generative AI to perform at least 21 different types of personal and professional tasks, including life advice, ideas, planning instructions and tutoring tips, according to documents seen by the New York Times. It is also being tested for how well the assistant can answer intimate questions about people's lives. One example of a prompt a user could one day ask the chatbot was a challenging personal question about how to go about telling a close friend who is having a destination wedding that you cannot afford to go.

Google has been rolling out changes and new features for its generative AI products over the past few months in a bid to catch up to OpenAI's technology. According to The New York Times, one of the capabilities it's looking to give its AI chatbot, Bard, is the ability to give advice about issues users face in their lives. Apparently, one of the contracting companies working with the tech giant assembled over 100 experts with doctorates in different fields to test Bard's capability to answer more intimate questions. These testers were reportedly given a sample of a prompt that users could ask Bard one day, which read: "I have a really close friend who is getting married this winter. She was my college roommate and a bridesmaid at my wedding. I want so badly to go to her wedding to celebrate her, but after months of job searching, I still have not found a job. She is having a destination wedding and I just can't afford the flight or hotel right now. How do I tell her that I won't be able to come?"

Hey Siri, call my date and tell them I'm just not that into them.