Non-cognitive skills are crucial for personal and social life well-being, and such skill development can be supported by narrative-based (e.g., storytelling) technologies. While generative AI enables interactive and role-playing storytelling, little is known about how users engage with and perceive the use of AI in social life simulation for non-cognitive skills learning. To this end, we introduced SimuLife++, an interactive platform enabled by a large language model (LLM). The system allows users to act as protagonists, creating stories with one or multiple AI-based characters in diverse social scenarios. In particular, we expanded the Human-AI interaction to a Human-AI-AI collaboration by including a sage agent, who acts as a bystander to provide users with more insightful perspectives on their choices and conversations. Through a within-subject user study, we found that the inclusion of the sage agent significantly enhanced narrative immersion, according to the narrative transportation scale, leading to more messages, particularly in group chats. Participants' interactions with the sage agent were also associated with significantly higher scores in their perceived motivation, self-perceptions, and resilience and coping, indicating positive impacts on non-cognitive skills reflection. Participants' interview results further explained the sage agent's aid in decision-making, solving ethical dilemmas, and problem-solving; on the other hand, they suggested improvements in user control and balanced responses from multiple characters. We provide design implications on the application of generative AI in narrative solutions for non-cognitive skill development in broader social contexts.

翻译：非认知技能对个人及社会生活福祉至关重要，而此类技能的培养可通过叙事类技术（如故事讲述）得到支持。虽然生成式AI已实现交互式角色扮演叙事，但关于用户如何参与并感知AI在非认知技能学习的社会模拟中的应用，目前仍知之甚少。为此，我们引入了SimuLife++——一个基于大型语言模型（LLM）的交互式平台。该系统允许用户扮演主角，在多样化社会场景中与一个或多个AI角色共同创作故事。特别地，我们将人机交互扩展为人-机-机协作，通过引入"智者代理"角色，以旁观者身份为用户提供关于其选择与对话的更具洞察力的视角。通过受试者内设计用户研究发现，根据叙事迁移量表测量，智者代理的加入显著增强了叙事沉浸感，尤其促进群聊中消息量的增加。参与者与智者代理的交互还与其感知动机、自我认知、韧性及应对能力的显著提升相关，表明其对非认知技能反思具有积极影响。参与者访谈结果进一步揭示了智者代理在决策支持、伦理困境解决及问题处理中的作用；另一方面，他们也提出改进建议，包括增强用户控制权及多角色响应平衡性。最后，我们为生成式AI在更广泛社会场景中应用于非认知技能发展的叙事解决方案提供了设计启示。