The selected history a system can actually retrieve and use in a later answer — not necessarily every message you have sent. Memory can retain preferences, summaries, and details about your work or relationships.
It personalizes the input without retraining the model: saving a note adds material for later requests, it does not change the model’s underlying weights. What matters for judgment is not the size of the archive but what is retrieved for the next request, and whether what was retrieved is true.
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Definition from The World That Agrees With You: Understanding and Managing Sycophancy in the Age of AI, by Timothy O’Brien. © 2026 Timothy O’Brien. All rights reserved.
See also
- Memory storesNotes, transcripts, indexes, skills: “clear the memory” must name the store.
- PersonalizationRemembered preferences shaping answers you did not ask to be shaped.
- Feedback loopAccepted explanation, saved summary, confirming answer, your approval.
- Memory curationThe weekly review that stops a disproved conclusion from returning.