What ChatGPT Thinks It Knows About You Is Affecting Its Answers. Here’s How to Change That | WIREDSkip to main contentTHE WIRED APP IS HEREDOWNLOAD NOW »MenuWIREDSECURITYPOLITICSTHE BIG STORYBUSINESSSCIENCECULTUREREVIEWSMenuWIREDAccountAccountNewslettersBest Android PhonesBest Robot VacuumsBest 2-in-1 LaptopsBest SoundbarsDeals DeliveredSecurityPoliticsThe Big StoryBusinessScienceCultureReviewsChevronMoreExpandThe Big InterviewMagazineEventsWIRED InsiderWIRED ConsultingNewslettersPodcastsVideoLivestreamsWIRED StoreSearchSearchDavid NieldGearSep 20, 2026 5:30 AMWhat ChatGPT Thinks It Knows About You Is Affecting Its Answers. Here’s How to Change ThatUnderstanding how ChatGPT’s latest memory upgrade works will help you get even more out of OpenAI’s productivity tool.Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff; Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyA memory of some kind is now a standard feature for an AI chatbot. The chatbot stores all of your interactions in its memory, enabling you to refer back to previous conversations, and giving the tool some useful context to frame its answers with. For example, if you tell it you're vegetarian, it won't recommend recipes with meat in them.This comes with privacy considerations as more of us share more of our lives with these apps. But it also has the potential to affect the responses you get from the AI in ways that you don't necessarily want.Perhaps you've spent a week researching how to replace a light switch and ChatGPT thinks you're a DIY enthusiast. Or you've been looking up places around a certain location that you're heading to for vacation, and the AI thinks you live there. All the bot's answers come with memory context now. Here's how it works, and what you can do about it.How ChatGPT Memory WorksMemory settings in ChatGPT on the web.
Screenshot: David NieldWhen ChatGPT first introduced a memory feature back in April 2024, you had to be very specific about what you wanted it to remember: You had to explicitly say to the bot "remember this" about something, otherwise it would be lost in the flow of conversation. You could then refer back to it as needed.It was a start, but not a very good one. These memories were very fixed—so if you mentioned an upcoming party, ChatGPT would always assume it was still in the future, even after the date had passed. Until you told the AI bot otherwise, it would always be referring to an upcoming event.After an update in June, ChatGPT now does something called dreaming, as explained on the OpenAI blog. Memories are now flexible, and are now built up and edited over time—so ChatGPT knows the party is in the past, not the future. What's more, memories are saved and sifted through automatically, so you don't have to make manual requests any more.Essentially, it's now down to the chatbot rather than you to decide what's important enough to be remembered—and while that's certainly more convenient for users, it can come with its own problems. ChatGPT is continually refining what it thinks it knows about you every time you interact with it, and it won't always make the right assessments.OpenAI says the three main aims of memory (or dreaming) are to carry forward useful context, to follow preferences and constraints, and to stay current over time. Ideally, that should mean responses that are tuned and personalized in helpful ways, but you don't get as much control over this as you might expect.You Can Edit ChatGPT’s MemoryChatGPT's memory logs are presented as a summary.Screenshot: David NieldTo find out what ChatGPT has remembered about you in the web app, click your profile icon (bottom left), then choose Personalization and scroll down to the Memory section. In the mobile apps, tap the menu button (top left), then your profile icon, then Memory.The first thing you'll see is a toggle switch for enabling the memory feature. You can turn this off to stop ChatGPT from remembering anything you say, but this won't wipe out existing memories—the AI won't refer to them, but it will hang on to them in case you decide to use memory again.Choose Manage next to Memory summaries to take a closer look at the AI's profile of you. This will cover topics like your interests and how you prefer answers to be delivered: You can highlight anything here, and then choose Make a correction or Don't mention this again to make changes. You can also use the prompt box at the bottom to issue commands like "forget that I'm a journalist."To wipe everything, select the three dots at the top, then choose Delete and turn off memory. Once you've confirmed your choice, you and ChatGPT will be starting again from scratch, memory-wise—although your past conversations don't go anywhere, and if you turn memory back on, these chats will be indexed all over again as ChatGPT tries to figure out who you are.Of course another way to manage memory is to not tell ChatGPT anything you don't want remembered. There's also a temporary chat feature available: Nothing in temporary chats is committed to memory, and they're forgotten as soon as they're closed. On the web, click the dotted speech bubble (top right) to start a temporary chat.CommentsBack to topJoin the discussionCommentsBack to topTriangleYou Might Also LikeIn your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gearMcDonald’s built a 515-page dossier on meBig Story: AI is dead—organoids are aliveThe manosphere is a multibillion-dollar grievance industryHow to find us: Add WIRED.com to your preferred sources in GoogleDavid Nield is a tech journalist from Manchester in the UK, who has been writing about apps and gadgets for more than two decades. You can follow him on X. ... 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The integration of memory into AI chatbots like ChatGPT is a feature designed to store past interactions, which serves to provide context for subsequent responses. This memory allows the chatbot to reference previous conversations, enabling personalized outputs, such as avoiding meat-based recipes if the user has specified a vegetarian diet. While this functionality enhances personalization, it introduces privacy considerations as users share more personal data with these applications, and the memory system can inadvertently shape the AI's assessments of the user. This contextualization can lead to unintended outcomes; for instance, the AI might incorrectly assume a user is a DIY enthusiast based on past research or infer a user's current location based on vacation planning.

The evolution of ChatGPT's memory feature reflects a shift from rigid storage to dynamic learning. Initially introduced in April 2024, memory required explicit user instruction, and the stored information was fixed, meaning time-sensitive data, such as future events, were not handled dynamically. Following an update in June, the system incorporated a process termed dreaming, allowing memories to be flexible, continuously built up, and edited over time, effectively correcting outdated assumptions. This dynamic updating means that the AI continuously refines what it believes it knows about the user during every interaction, although the accuracy of these assessments is not guaranteed.

OpenAI outlines three primary objectives for implementing this memory system: to carry forward useful context, to adhere to established preferences and constraints, and to maintain temporal awareness. Ideally, these aims result in responses that are highly tuned and personalized in a helpful manner, though users possess limited control over the degree of this personalization.

Users have several mechanisms to manage this stored memory. Accessing the current memory logs is facilitated through the settings section, allowing users to view summaries of the AI’s profile regarding interests and preferred response styles. Users can actively edit these summaries by highlighting information and issuing corrective commands, such as instructing the AI to forget specific details, like a stated profession. A more comprehensive control method involves selecting the option to delete memory entirely, which resets the AI's contextual awareness for the user, although past conversations are generally not erased from the user's history. Furthermore, users can mitigate memory retention by utilizing temporary chat sessions, which are explicitly designed to be ephemeral, ensuring that information shared in these contexts is not committed to the long-term memory.