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. Additionally, the benefits of AI mentorship on self-reflection awareness and ability in this context remain largely underexplored. 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, providing users with some perspectives and guidance on their choices and conversations in terms of non-cognitive skills to promote reflection. In a within-subject user study, our quantitative results reveal that, when accompanied by Sage Agent, users exhibit significantly higher levels of reflection on motivation, self-perceptions, and resilience & coping, along with an enhanced experience of narrative transportation. Additionally, our qualitative findings suggest that Sage Agent plays a crucial role in promoting reflection on non-cognitive skills, enhancing social communication and decision-making performance, and improving overall user experience within Simulife++. Multiple supportive relationships between Sage Agent and users were also reported. We offer design implications for the application of generative AI in narrative solutions and the future potential of Sage Agent for non-cognitive skill development in broader social contexts.

翻译：非认知技能对个人与社会生活的福祉至关重要，此类技能的发展可通过基于叙事（如讲故事）的技术加以辅助。尽管生成式人工智能实现了交互式与角色扮演式的叙事，但用户如何参与并感知人工智能在非认知技能学习的社交生活模拟中的应用，目前尚不明确。此外，在此情境下人工智能导师对自我反思意识与能力的促进作用也仍未得到充分探索。为此，我们推出了Simulife++，一个由大语言模型驱动的交互式平台。该系统允许用户扮演主角，在多样化的社交场景中与一个或多个基于人工智能的角色共同构建故事。特别地，我们通过引入一个扮演旁观者角色的智者代理，将人机交互扩展为人-机-机协作模式；该代理从非认知技能的角度，对用户的选择与对话提供观点与指导，以促进反思。在一项被试内用户研究中，定量结果表明：当有智者代理参与时，用户在动机、自我认知以及韧性应对方面的反思水平显著提高，同时叙事沉浸体验也得到增强。此外，定性分析发现，智者代理在促进非认知技能反思、提升社交沟通与决策表现、以及改善Simulife++内的整体用户体验方面发挥了关键作用。研究还报告了智者代理与用户之间存在的多种支持性关系。我们为生成式人工智能在叙事解决方案中的应用提供了设计启示，并探讨了智者代理在更广泛社会情境下促进非认知技能发展的未来潜力。