OpenAI is Planning to Give ChatGPT Memories

OpenAI said today that it is testing a new feature in ChatGPT that lets it remember information across chats.

When users start a new prompt, they often have to repeat information from past prompts. OpenAI said this new feature will lessen the need to do so.

“We’re testing memory with ChatGPT. Remembering things you discuss across all chats saves you from having to repeat information and makes future conversations more helpful,” the company said in a blog post.

Users can tell ChatGPT to remember something specifically, or tell it to forget certain details. You can also turn off this feature entirely in settings. To view and delete specific memories, go to ‘Manage Memory’ in settings.

OpenAI is testing memories with a few ChatGPT free and paid users initially and will share plans for any broader rollout.

OpenAI said it may use the content in memories and ChatGPT generally to train its AI models. Users can disable it in Data Controls. Data from team and enterprise users are not used for training.

How it works

OpenAI said ChatGPT’s memory will get better the more it is used.

Some examples of memory:

-ChatGPT can remember that you prefer your meeting notes with headlines, bullets and action points at the bottom.

-ChatGPT can remember your programming language and frameworks to apply these preferences in future tasks.

-ChatGPT can create monthly business reports in your preferred charts with takeaways. Just upload new data every month.

OpenAI said it recognizes certain information is sensitive so it is “proactively” steering ChatGPT away from remembering data like health metrics. You can, however, tell ChatGPT to remember it.

Users can also avoid using memory without turning it off by using the ‘temporary chat’ feature in ChatGPT. Messages will not appear in history and it will not use any memory. ‘Temporary chat’ is akin to using the incognito tab in a web browser.

To access ‘temporary chat,’ click on ChatGPT version link at the top, left of center. When the menu opens, you will see ‘temporary chat.’

OpenAI said deleting a chat does not erase data stored in memories.