Finding out ChatGPT remembers your conversations
One evening I was just chatting with ChatGPT about some random thing and then, to my surprise, it related something to a business which I run. I was stunned. I had been vaguely aware of its memory ability, but was in awe of how it was accurately able to relate things to make them familiar to me. I then asked it what it knows about me and, to my surprise, it knew where I lived, my ethnicity, and my age, among other things. A long time ago I had talked to it about my side hustle so it was striking to see it remember that.
The upsides
This feature has the potential to save you effort in prompting as well as possibly help you with your own self-reflection and growth. Many of us tell ChatGPT a lot about ourselves, often treating it like a therapist. This feature could help ChatGPT understand your needs and preferences and better respond to you in ways that you can understand.
It’s possibly a window to what comes next in this journey of AI and human interaction. There’s a very high chance that we will all one day have individual AI assistants.
The privacy concerns it raises
When I realized we have very deep conversations with ChatGPT, I immediately thought of the privacy concerns this raises. The first that came to mind is the chance that if someone gets a hold of your phone, laptop, or whatever daily driver you use, there’s a chance that they can query it for some personal information about you, which can have further implications.
There are several ways you can alleviate this, which may include:
- Always locking your phone and laptop when you leave them unattended
- Not sharing your Google/Facebook logins with anyone
- If on Samsung, moving ChatGPT to a secure folder
- Using multi-factor authentication (I opted into this)
Summary
- ChatGPT has the ability to remember your conversations
- This feature has the potential to save you effort in prompting as well as possibly help you with your own self-reflection and growth
- The privacy concerns it raises are real and should be taken seriously
- Take measures to ensure the likelihood of someone getting a hold of your personal information is low