Back in the day, each time you booted up ChatGPT, you’d need to rehash everything about you and your goals (like, “I write a newsletter about AI yada yada.”).
We’re waiting for GPT-5 to address all of this. In the meantime, OpenAI has cooked up a few solutions.
- Initially, it rolled out Custom Instructions, allowing users to customize the ways ChatGPT responds.
- Now, it’s launching Memory for Plus users in the US, designed to let ChatGPT remember facts about you across conversations.
For example, we’ve instructed ChatGPT to always offer up 5 synonyms whenever we request a synonym:
Here’s how-to on using Memory:
- Go to Settings > Personalization > Memory > Manage. By default, memory is enabled, but you can turn it off in Settings under Personalization.
- Add any details you want ChatGPT to recall, like:
- Past jobs, current skills, and future goals.
- Key elements typically included in your emails.
- Your preferred tone, voice, and style of writing.
- Jargon specific to your profession.
- Tools frequently utilized in project management or software.
- To store a detail, simply say “remember this _____”. You can also ask ChatGPT to recall a previously remembered topic or detail.
- For hotkeys and shortcuts, do the following:
You’re in control of your memories: enable, reset, or delete specific or all memories as needed. If you prefer a conversation without memory, use Temporary Chat.
Note that memories are stored separately from chat history and aren’t shared with GPTs or developers.
By default, memory is enabled, but you can turn it off in Settings under Personalization.
Memory slightly outperforms Custom Instructions, but we view it as a mostly stopgap measure.
It gets us one step closer to personalized AI assistants that truly remember everything, and I mean everything, about us: what projects we’re working on, preferred software, our brand voice, and more.