ChatGPT Will Soon Remember Everything You’ve Ever Said to It
These days, be careful what you share with ChatGPT: it will remember everything you say.
This is because OpenAI is releasing a new ChatGPT memory update that allows the bot to access the content of all your previous chats. The idea is that ChatGPT, based on your past conversations, will be able to offer more relevant results for your questions, queries and general discussions. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, announced the changes to X , highlighting the usefulness of artificial intelligence systems that know everything about you:
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ChatGPT’s memory features are a little over a year old at this point , but its features were much more limited than the update OpenAI is releasing today. ChatGPT can remember your preferences or requests (perhaps you have a favorite style of summary formatting or a nickname you want the bot to call you by) and carry those memories from chat to chat. However, it was not perfect and could not naturally draw on past conversations, as a function such as “memory” might imply.
Previously, the bot would store this data in a bank of “saved memories.” You can access this memory bank at any time and see what the bot has saved based on your conversations. It’s a little strange to see these recordings when you haven’t specifically asked ChatGPT to remember something for you – like finding out that a new friend is recording “useful facts” about you from past conversations. This is weird.
Since this feature is currently being rolled out, it is unclear how it will affect stored memories. In all likelihood they will disappear as there is no need for a specific memory bank as ChatGPT can simply pull from everything you have ever said to the bot.
Personally, I don’t use ChatGPT much other than testing new features that can be covered here, so I can’t say whether I find this feature particularly useful or not. I can imagine how it might be useful to be able to reference something you said to the bot in a past conversation, especially without having to first make sure the bot actually remembered that fact, but I also don’t like the idea of a chatbot “remembering” everything I’ve ever said to it. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the idea of generative AI as a personal assistant, or maybe it’s because I’m tired of tech companies collecting so much of my data. We’ll just have to see how useful this expanded memory turns out to be once users get their hands on it.
The feature will first be available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers , but there is no word yet on when free users will be able to try it out. Users in the UK, EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland will also have to wait to use the feature as local laws require additional checks before it can go live. (Perhaps all countries should force AI companies to do more testing before releasing new features.)
How to disable ChatGPT memory
If you, like me, have concerns about your chatbot’s access to every word of your past conversations, there is a way to disable this memory feature.
I don’t have a new feature yet, so it’s possible it will change a bit. But for now, you can go to Settings > Personalization > Memory , and then turn off the switch next to Link to Saved Memories .
If you want to keep the memory feature enabled but don’t want ChatGPT to remember one specific chat, you can run a “temporary chat” to make sure the conversation is quarantined. (Just know that OpenAI can store transcripts for up to 30 days.)