Digital Life Models and Transformative Choices: Could AI Simulations of Individual Minds (AI SIMs) Help us Make Important Life Decisions More Rationally and Authentically?

The article advances the idea of "digital life models" to assist with difficult personal decisions, including those that can change an individual in profound ways. We propose that if personalized AI simulations can model how an individual's life might unfold under different conditions, this could help the individual better understand the likelihoods and expected subjective value of these possible outcomes. It remains to be seen whether these digital life models are technically feasible, given fundamental challenges in modeling psychological complexity, person-environment interactions, and value change. Ethical concerns include data privacy, cultural bias, and the risk of improperly shaping user decisions. Acknowledging these limitations, we argue that digital life models, if successfully developed, could in principle enhance rational and authentic decision-making in the face of potentially transformative change.