ChatGPT’s New Memory Feature: A First Look

Introduction

My ChatGPT wasn’t showing the new memory feature until sometime in the past few hours. And I have to share!

Notification

After reading about this new memory feature, I logged onto ChatGPT 4 and got the above notification. Interesting!

Accessing the Memory Feature

To access “memory,” click on your name and photo in the bottom left corner, then go to “settings” and then “personalization.” You should see the screen above.

Managing Memories

Clicking on “Manage” brought up this box where you can view ChatGPT’s memory or delete it. Since I hadn’t used it yet, it was empty.

Testing the Memory Feature

I’m not sure what parts of your chat get stored in memory, but I decided to tell it to “remember.” It replied with “memory updated.” The “Howdy Doody, Dana!” was a custom instruction I entered while showing my students how to use that feature in my “AI Explorations” course today. I will be deleting it, but thought it was funny and came up with it in the moment.

Viewing the New Memory

And lastly I went back into ChatGPT’s memory, and there was the new memory! It says “Dana just got a new computer.” I’m anxious to play with this some more and see how easily it remembers things. I’d also like to see how it affects how we interact.

Your Turn

Do you have this feature yet? What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear how you’re using it and what you think of it.