Fortune tellers beware: AI knows future income, health, death

The 2008 series "The Mentalist" is about a fortune teller who himself says that there are no fortune tellers. And yet he repeatedly makes astonishingly certain statements about the current and future behavior of other people.

That's television, of course. Nevertheless, the approach of this so-called mentalist seems convincing, using education, life circumstances and personal experience to accurately predict future behavior.

This is exactly what Danish researchers have tried to do on a grand scale. Based on data from 5,000 children relating to family ties, health or education over a period of 15 years, the aim was to draw conclusions about future development. However, these results were not reliable.

AI brings the breakthrough

In a new study, the data was therefore treated differently. With the help of a large language model, such as the one used by ChatGPT, it was possible to create an algorithm based on the analysis of large volumes of text.

Just as artificial intelligence otherwise examines which word is most likely to follow the previous word - according to a given context - the system "life2vec" analyzes the course of life.

Specified steps, decisions and milestones in one's life are followed by future events with measurable probability.

According to the study, the system is almost 80% accurate. Some risk factors for premature death, such as low income or the wrong gender (male), are likely to be known.

But it seems exciting, to have the possibility of being able to estimate the risk of certain diseases in your own future. This would allow more targeted prevention and faster diagnosis.

You can already start your self-experiment as an amateur astrologer: all the data is available on github, ready to be used with Hydra to get a glimpse into the future.

However, caution is advised. If you don't live in Denmark, the probability of a reliable prediction is reduced.