OpenAI is now asking users of its AI chatbot to provide more information about themselves to make their conversations with ChatGPT more comfortable. This change arrives as part of an updated menu, where users can specify a preferred name or nickname, their profession, and various traits they’d like ChatGPT to know about them. According to OpenAI, these details will help refine the chatbot’s ability to generate responses that better suit each individual’s style and needs. While this move appears to be focused on personalization, we’ll keep you updated on how these features evolve over time.
Interestingly, this new customization option does not seem to be tied to ChatGPT’s memory feature, which is designed to let users explicitly tell the chatbot to remember or forget something. TechCrunch has pointed out that the latest update may be more of an aesthetic or surface-level change, rather than a deeply technical enhancement. Nonetheless, it gives users a way to introduce themselves and establish a more comfortable foundation for their conversations with the AI.
New Ways to Personalize ChatGPT
OpenAI has introduced several settings that users can adjust before they start chatting. Besides entering a preferred name or nickname, you can specify your profession or select certain traits that you would like ChatGPT to associate with you, such as “talkative” or “Gen Z.” According to the updated menu, “Introduce yourself to get better, more personalized answers.” This prompt appears whenever you access the newly added customization section, gently encouraging users to share more about who they are.
It is worth noting that these preferences, while potentially beneficial for generating more relevant responses, do not change how ChatGPT stores explicit information in its memory. They act more like shortcuts for personalization, rather than instructions ChatGPT is compelled to permanently remember.
Experiments and the Memory Function
A year and a half ago, OpenAI experimented with various tools designed to personalize answers in a more detailed way. Back then, the chatbot was offered to provide specific instructions, which eliminated the need to repeatedly specify certain parameters—such as maintaining a formal tone or limiting responses to a certain number of characters—every time you started a new conversation.
In 2023, OpenAI introduced a memory function that allows ChatGPT to save user requests and settings more systematically, reminds NIX Solutions. However, since its launch, this functionality has only been available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The latest addition to ChatGPT, which encourages users to introduce themselves, seems to operate independently from that deeper memory feature, suggesting it is more of an interface update that aims to make conversations feel more personalized.
Overall, these developments reflect OpenAI’s ongoing effort to enhance user comfort and interaction with ChatGPT. By allowing people to set a preferred name, profession, and personal traits, the chatbot becomes better equipped to tailor its responses to individual preferences. We’ll keep you updated on any further tweaks or improvements in how ChatGPT handles user information, especially as OpenAI explores new avenues to refine its AI-driven conversational tool.