OpenAI just upgraded memory for ChatGPT – all the latest as Sam Altman says it’s about ‘how AI will integrate in our lives’

OpenAI’s certainly been on a roll with feature after feature and even new models – and if you thought the AI giant was going to take a break after it’s new image generation tech, you’re in for a surprise.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to tease that a new feature is coming. The post reads: “a few times a year I wake up early and can’t fall back asleep because we are launching a new feature I’ve been so excited about for so long. Today is one of those days!”

It’s certainly building up the hype and leading us to wonder what might be on the horizon. OpenAI typically launches mid-morning Pacific Time, which translates to early afternoon Eastern Time – so TechRadar is here to break down and unpack whatever Altman and the team are planning to show off today.

Considering he said “new feature” though let’s quickly note that we’d be very surprised if it’s new model or an upgrade to o3 or o4. Altman even followed up saying just that, but noting it’s a critical one that will impact “how AI will integrate in our lives.”

So here’s the original post on X that started the train of something new from OpenAI today.

Now just after 1PM ET as we predicted, Sam Altman has announced that OpenAI has “greatly improved memory in chatgpt”

The major change here, as Altman describes it, is that ChatGPT can now refer back to previous conversations you’ve had with the AI assistant. Of course, this will be an opt-in feature and plays into the idea – and quest from AI makers – that AI should know a lot about you and ultimately be personalized to your needs.

OpenAI is also wasting no time. ChatGPT’s improved memory function is now rolling out for Pro Users in select countries, excluding the UK, EEA, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. It will eventually arrive for Plus subscribers, but there is no word on when this will hit free users.

Now, we’re eager to try out this new memory function, but my colleague Lance Ulanoff – TechRadar’s Editor-at-Large – ChatGPT Plus account, doesn’t yet have the memory function or know that it’s a new feature.

However, this improvement could prove quite useful for reviewing conversations you’ve had with ChatGPT without having to manually scroll through all of them.

In a series of announcement posts on X (formerly Twitter), Altman showed that he views this feature drop as a pretty major one.

Writing, “this is a surprisingly great feature imo, and it points at something we are excited about: ai systems that get to know you over your life, and become extremely useful and personalized.”

Clearly, the team at OpenAI views this as a big step forward and, ultimately, a push toward making the AI assistant and chatbot even more useful. It also hints at the future for OpenAI as a focus is letting these AI systems really get to know whomever it’s conversing with. That could hint at future AI agents, much more advanced large-language models, and that rumored piece of hardware.

While ChatGPT Pro subscribers have access to the improved memory right now, those with a ChatGPT Plus plan should get access soon.

Sam Altman is shedding a bit more light in a reply, noting it should be in the next few days.

You will be able to opt-out

If the idea of an AI chatbot remembering everything you say doesn’t interest you, OpenAI has programmed two ways to circumvent this within ChatGPT.

You can either opt out of memory entirely or use a new feature called temporary conversations. This will allow you to start a fresh conversation that won’t recall or impact memory.

That might be the best approach, especially if you’re mostly on board with Sam Altman’s view that AI systems should get to know you.