OpenAI just announced it’s testing new memory features for ChatGPT, allowing the artificial intelligence tool to remember information from your conversations to prevent repetition and enhance future discussions.
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The feature will be available for both free and paid users, and they can edit the information they want saved, deleted, or turn off the feature entirely. It can be as easy as asking ChatGPT to remember or forget something, and it will follow through. If you don’t feel like asking the AI chatbot this, go to your Settings, Personalization, and Manage Memory.
These memories can improve your future conversations by giving the bot context to give users more helpful and accurate information. OpenAI also says Memories is being used to improve its large language models (LLM). The feature is rolling out gradually to a group of ChatGPT users and Plus subscribers, with a broad rollout planned further down the line.
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The new memory feature will also be available in GPT bots, though builders can enable or leave it disabled for their bots. OpenAI states that users must have Memory enabled to interact with a memory-enabled GPT but that your memories are not shared with builders. Your memories saved in ChatGPT will not be shared with individual bots or vice-versa, as each GPT will have its own Memory.
A new feature called Temporary Chat also gives ChatGPT users the ability to chat without using Memory so that they don’t appear in their chat history, won’t use Memory, and won’t be used to train OpenAI’s LLMs. Think of it like opening an incognito tab to search for that weird symptom you’re experiencing without getting fungal cream ads on YouTube afterward.
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OpenAI had already made Custom Instructions available for free and paying ChatGPT users. Custom Instructions let you give the bot some information about you and how you’d like it to respond. For example, you can instruct ChatGPT to always provide summaries using bullet points. But Custom Instructions can only include so much.
Giving ChatGPT and GPT bots memory means they can remember information shared within conversations, like remembering and applying project management preferences or communication styles based on past interactions and suggesting music artists or preferred genres based on the questions or conversations you’ve had.
