OpenAI just released a new memory feature for ChatGPT that allows it to recall everything you’ve ever discussed with it, not just the details you’ve explicitly saved to its long-term memory.
As a result, the chatbot can draw upon all your prior chats to tailor its responses, reference your interests, and deliver more personalized experiences. You’re in control of what ChatGPT does and doesn’t remember. But the feature still raises questions about privacy and data control. And if you’re running a business, there are additional considerations around what your teams might share—and what gets stored—when memory is turned on.
To learn more about the new feature (and how to navigate it), I talked to Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 144 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
ChatGPT’s “memory” used to be limited. You could instruct it to remember some preferences or store specific pieces of information, but your past conversations were mostly siloed. Now, if you opt in, ChatGPT will seamlessly weave details from any of your prior chats into its responses.
That means you don’t have to restate your context, interests, or personal details every time you use it. ChatGPT will just remember and be able to reference prior conversations.
It’s optional, though. You can disable memory entirely, or use “temporary chats” that won’t reference or update ChatGPT’s recollections. OpenAI also says you can delete individual memories or entire conversations if you don’t want them factored into future responses.
But Roetzer suspects many users won’t even bother.
“If this sounds to you like people are just going to not change anything and they’re just going to accept whatever OpenAI sets as the standard, you are probably correct,” he says. “I would imagine the vast majority of users are never going to touch these settings, and they’re going to not even know this is a thing.”
Translation? Most people could just let ChatGPT save and store all the details of their conversations, by default, without giving it a second thought.
The upside to ChatGPT remembering your entire history is obvious: more efficient, more personalized AI. ChatGPT can respond with greater nuance, recall your past projects, and tailor recommendations to your individual preferences.
This isn’t just some light convenience. It has the potential to evolve into a fully personalized AI assistant that grows alongside you. As Paul notes, other tech giants are chasing this same milestone:
“It’s also a feature Google has and is going to build on, too,” he says.
“This is the next frontier these companies are competing for, is to take all of your personal data to create truly personalized experiences for you through your AI so they can build truly personalized assistance.”
Still, granting this level of access to your digital life raises red flags for anyone who cares about data security or just wants to keep certain details private. And it’s not just about your personal life. Plenty of people use ChatGPT for work tasks, financials, or even health questions. That kind of sensitive data is now part of the chatbot’s expanded memory if you leave all the defaults in place.
You can directly prompt ChatGPT with, “What do you remember about me?” to see a summarized list of how it’s categorizing your interests, projects, or tasks. It’s eye-opening. Roetzer experienced ChatGPT lumping together personal items with business tasks he’d done for others—and the model was able to reorganize that data into distinct categories upon request.
OpenAI is also limiting some types of data that memory will retrieve. Roetzer experimented with trying to have ChatGPT’s memory retrieve some sensitive health data he recently shared with it, and it would not display that as part of its “remembering.” That doesn’t mean ChatGPT doesn’t have access to that data.
“They’re just choosing not to surface it to you,” he says. “What they’re basically saying is: we remember everything you ask us to, we just classify stuff and extract it. So how good they are at filtering this sensitive and private information is really the question.”
Right now, there are three big implications of ChatGPT’s new memory features for users that we’re seeing as particularly relevant.
Roetzer notes that ChatGPT memory can be incredibly valuable for internal use, but it demands extra caution. Some tips for businesses include:
So make no mistake: The new ChatGPT memory features can be hugely beneficial to your life and work. But those benefits come with tradeoffs.
“It is a very powerful feature,” says Roetzer. “It could be a potentially sticky feature. But it’s a slippery slope, too.”