ChatGPT deploys an interesting new feature… which Europe is deprived of

ChatGPT will finally acquire a “memory”. Useful for remembering details about you, this feature will unfortunately be unavailable in Europe.

OpenAI announced it and it is now a fact: ChatGPT can remember personal information about you, your work or your family. As promised last February, the conversational robot will now be able to “store” certain information to restore it if necessary during your various discussions.

A more personalized ChatGPT

Simply called “memory”, this feature can be activated or deactivated in the application’s system settings for those who use the paid “ChatGPT Plus” service. In the demo video published on X, the company shows how a user asks ChatGPT to remember the breed of their dog and cat. Secondly and in a new chat window, the same person then asks ChatGPT to create an image with “his pets surfing» and the machine creates an appropriate image by drawing from the recorded “memories”.

Obviously, the functionality is optional, it is possible to manage the recorded information and switch to “temporary” chats where the machine will not record anything. “Remembering the topics you discuss across all chats saves you from having to repeat information and makes future conversations run smoother», Indicates the company in its announcement post.

OpenAI is afraid of GDPR?

Small problem that said, the functionality is completely absent for Internet users from the old continent. Without giving much more detail than that, OpenAI indicated that the tool was available “for all ChatGPT Plus users» except those located in Europe and Korea. If the company does not justify this “overlooking”, there is no doubt that it has to do with the management of private life and compliance with the GDPR.

Indeed, mentioning Europe and Korea in the same breath points to an excess of caution on the part of OpenAI since Seoul, like Europe, has strict regulations on the protection of personal data. Despite the safeguards put in place by OpenAI (which prevent ChatGPT from remembering personal information about your health for example), it is easy to see how such a system could quickly become a veritable mine of sensitive information which would be viewed crooked by the European CNIL.

The same day that OpenAI announced the deployment of this functionality, Austrian activist Max Schrems, specializing in the protection of personal data, announced that he was filing a complaint against the company for violating the GDPR. No doubt the firm did not want to take unnecessary risks.

Source : OpenAI