ChatGPT's new memory upgrade is powerful - and could poison every answer it gives you

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ChatGPT's memory now builds a profile from past chats. Old or irrelevant details can distort future AI answers. Turning memory off may not fully erase what ChatGPT knows. According to a blog post released last week, OpenAI seems quite proud of the "improvements" it's made to managing user memories in the chatbot. I'm not sure I like them. In fact, I know I don't. I'm just not sure whether turning the improvements off will make things better or worse. Also: ChatGPT vs. Gemini's AI image generation: A single prompt tweak makes a big difference Memories, for the purpose of this discussion, are details you share with ChatGPT. Introduced in 2024, memories were basically a list of facts the AI could reference. Today, they have expanded considerably to include your entire chat history, explicit instructions, personal constraints, and even implicit preferences the AI derives from past behavior and casual remarks. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) This article has three sections. First, I'll go over the technical information from OpenAI's recent…