Yes, ChatGPT gets memory. This means it will be able to memorize context and information from conversations so that you don’t have to repeat yourself by recalling it in another chat. Now, when chatting with the bot, you can prompt ChatGPT to memorize something or prompt the chatbot to pick out details from your conversation that need memorization. Now, you won’t need to remind the bot every time about the information you have already provided in another chat or remind it of the answers it has given.
This will affect both the ideas and suggestions it generates to the conversation format. Open AI promises that the more you use this feature, the better it will get. It’s convenient because it makes moving from one chat to another much more accessible; you won’t have to recall all the details or conversation format you had in another chat.
But there is a downside: some people have concerns that people will now be inclined to provide more sensitive information. There are also questions about how the company will use and store that information and what to do with the data you provide.
Here are a few examples:
- If you use a chatbot to create notes, you can ask it to memorize the correct formatting approach so that the notes have the same look and feel in each new chat.
- If you use ChatGPT or plugins for, for example, “what to watch” recommendations, you can ask ChatGPT to remember what you’ve already watched and your preferences, making the recommendations more accurate.
- If you use ChatGPT as a writing assistant, you can ask it to remember your tone, style, and other specifics to get more personalized responses.
There can be many options, and they can be both helpful and question-begging. Either way, you can control the Memories feature to delete memories or turn it off altogether.
How to manage ChatGPT memory
You can go to Settings – Personalization to control what the chatbot will remember. The memory feature is enabled by default, but you can disable it entirely if you don’t want to use this option at all.
Alternatively, you can control what the ChatGPT remembers. To do so, click Manage.
I don’t have this feature available yet, so I still haven’t tried it out myself, but there is one issue that I have questions about: “Why activate this feature by default?” It seems that a much smarter and more ethical approach would be to make it optional, thus giving those who want to activate it the opportunity to do so.
It would surprise many people to suddenly find that ChatGPT remembers things it shouldn’t if people don’t keep up with updates and news, so this approach is questionable.
Open AI had not responded to questions sent after hours at the time of publication.