Research · Agents with a life · Oct 6, 2026

An agent with a life record, against a persona

Not met912 people, held out

Improved A later registered study met the bar: An agent that remembers what a person said.

The test at a glance

What it tests: Accuracy against reality: a person's own answers, years later.
Data: General Social Survey 2016-2020 panel; a seeded half of 912 people for testing.
Held out: The test half's 2020 answers on happiness, finances and health.
Compared against: A persona built from the first interview.
Bar: On the two finance questions: a lower Brier score, with the 95% interval of the difference above zero.
Result: +0.0027 (interval -0.0073 to +0.0126): not met.

Given everything that had happened to a person since their first interview, a model predicted their 2020 General Social Survey answers no better than from a persona alone: +0.0027 in the registered score, with an interval from -0.0073 to +0.0126. Registered before any test answer was read; 912 people held out. The next test added what the person had said.

Protocol, result and scorer

Protocol Scorer Result

A memory that also holds what the person said, on three panels never used: met (the result).

An agent with a life record, against a persona

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