I'm excited about ChatGPT's memory upgrade - but I'm quickly seeing a downside - ZDNET

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. OpenAI says ChatGPT's memory is getting better. But my tests reveal outdated assumptions, personal profiling, and incorrect details that could subtly distort your answers. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. According to a blog post released recently, 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 i