ChatGPT silently rewrites and deletes Saved Memories, support confirms
Rivengate · reddit · 2026-09-06
A heavy user discovered ChatGPT's Saved Memories don't behave as independently controlled records:
- Adding related facts silently merged into existing memories, with wording paraphrased and compressed despite explicit instructions to preserve exact text.
- Worse: when asked to delete only older superseded memories while preserving the new canonical one, the entire canonical memory vanished.
- OpenAI support confirmed that legacy Saved Memories can be automatically updated, combined, or removed, and entries that appear separate in Settings may be treated as the same semantic object.
The author argues the core issue is control and authorship: the UI presents individual entries with management controls, but an invisible curator decides what's "the same," what gets rewritten, and what disappears. For users relying on ChatGPT as long-term infrastructure — research, disability support, creative worlds, companionship — deterministic control is not trivial.
More from Models
- Local AI Goes Mainstream: TikTok Videos Have Ordinary People Asking to Run Qwen 27B at Home — StandardLovers · 2026-09-06
- OpenAI ships GPT-6 Astra, first model to hit Critical cyber threshold, at $10/$50 per token — btibor91 · 2026-09-06
- Instagram's AI detector mislabels real photos as 'AI Content', confusing users — emmanuelvivier · 2026-09-06
- Sam Altman reportedly apologizes for 'chaotic' GPT-6 Astra launch that locked out paying users — emmanuelvivier · 2026-09-06
- After 24 hours of testing, user calls Astra overhyped and says work usefulness peaked with Opus 4.8 — Scobleizer · 2026-09-06
- tokenbender on new model hype: trust shippers not yappers, verdict in 10-15 days — tokenbender · 2026-09-06