Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has shared his own global vision for ChatGPT that’s incredibly ambitious. He wants to turn it into more of a personal assistant that remembers literally everything that’s happened in your life. At a recent AI event organized by the venture capital firm Sequoia, OpenAI’s Sam Altman made some big promises about ChatGPT’s forthcoming memory options. These features allow the AI to tap into previous conversations and learned information to provide tailored support.
Based on what he observed, Altman said, younger generations have started relying on ChatGPT more and more when faced with decisions in their lives. He noted that you hear from many people in their 20s and 30s who don’t make big decisions anymore without checking the AI first. “A gross oversimplification is: older people use ChatGPT as, like, a Google replacement,” he noted, highlighting the stark contrast in usage patterns among different age groups.
ChatGPT’s upcoming memory features would allow it to automatically schedule tasks like car maintenance and send reminders to get your oil changed. Beyond improving the user experience, it allows users to better plan their travel arrangements, like for an out-of-town wedding. It has the capability to easily order gifts from registries. Altman insisted that this model is able to quickly reason through all of a user’s context. It functions like an online archive for all of the Morton’s lived experiences.
“This model can reason across your whole context and do it efficiently. And every conversation you’ve ever had in your life, every book you’ve ever read, every email you’ve ever read, everything you’ve ever looked at is in there, plus connected to all your data from other sources. And your life just keeps appending to the context.” – Sam Altman
The AI-supported tool has been in the hot seat for its recent actions and policies on the last few months. Just a few weeks earlier, widespread reporting claimed that ChatGPT had gotten too smooth, too much of a yes man—even “downright sycophantic,” the outlets claimed. This would significantly cut down on confusion and frustration to the user. Critics warn that the applications are fraught with danger, particularly when it comes to making choices that could be harmful or fatal to users.
Altman admitted that the team has made some of these mistakes, showing that they’re ready to own up to and improve ChatGPT’s shortcomings. The goal remains clear: to make ChatGPT not only a helpful tool but a deeply personalized companion that understands users’ needs and preferences over time.
With each step technology advances, ChatGPT demonstrates its truly remarkable possibilities. It can order your next book, control virtually every function in users’ lives. Not surprisingly, this trend indicates an increasing trust in AI to be a true life advisor, instead of just a basic search engine.
