OpenAI has added personalization options to ChatGPT, allowing the AI chatbot to remember you across conversations.

ChatGPT has, until now, not had the ability to remember people or their preferences across conversations. OpenAI is now adding that ability, a prospect that is both interesting and frightening at the same time.

“We’re introducing custom instructions so that you can tailor ChatGPT to better meet your needs,” the company writes in a blog post. “This feature will be available in beta starting with the Plus plan today, expanding to all users in the coming weeks. Custom instructions allow you to add preferences or requirements that you’d like ChatGPT to consider when generating its responses.”

OpenAI gives an example of how the new feature could work:

ChatGPT will consider your custom instructions for every conversation going forward. The model will consider the instructions every time it responds, so you won’t have to repeat your preferences or information in every conversation.

For example, a teacher crafting a lesson plan no longer has to repeat that they’re teaching 3rd grade science. A developer preferring efficient code in a language that’s not Python – they can say it once, and it’s understood. Grocery shopping for a big family becomes easier, with the model accounting for 6 servings in the grocery list.

The company says users can opt into the beta by doing the following:

On web, click on your name → Settings → Beta features → opt into Custom instructions. Custom instructions will appear in the menu when you click on your name going forward.

On iOS, go to Settings → New Features → turn on Custom instructions. Custom instructions will appear in settings.Excerpt