Glossary
AI memory
AI memory is a feature that lets an assistant remember facts about you across conversations: your job, your preferences, past projects. Convenient, but it builds a profile over time, so it's worth knowing where to view, edit and delete what it has stored.
Normally a chatbot forgets everything when a conversation ends: its context window empties out. AI memory changes that: the assistant keeps notes between chats. Tell ChatGPT once that you run a bar in Naples and prefer short answers, and weeks later it still knows.
That’s genuinely helpful. The bar owner doesn’t have to re-explain her business every time she asks for a social media post. But notice what’s happening: a profile of you is accumulating (work, family details, health questions you’ve asked) and it persists until you remove it.
The good news is you’re in control, and the controls are easy once you find them. You can read every stored memory, delete single entries, or turn the feature off entirely. A temporary chat also skips memory for that one conversation.
One thing that trips people up: memory is a separate switch from your chat history and from training/data settings: three different controls, not one. A quick way to audit what’s stored is to just ask: “What do you remember about me?” The setup wizard walks you through all three switches in minutes.
Where you’ll meet this
- ChatGPT → Settings → Personalization, where the memory controls (including “Manage” or “Saved memories”) list what’s stored; the exact labels vary by plan and region
- Gemini → Settings & help → Personal Intelligence, where you manage your instructions and connected apps; your saved chats in Gemini Apps Activity can also be used to personalize answers
- Claude → Settings → Memory, where you turn “Generate memory from chats” on or off (searching past chats is on by default once the feature reaches your account); on Team and Enterprise an owner decides whether memory is available
Related terms
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