At this point, there’s not much more to say about ChatGPT. Late last year, the chatbot took the world by storm and hasn’t let up since. It has impressed us all with its ability to answer questions and make things, and it often passes the Turing Test.
AI is changing quickly, faster than many people thought it would. ChatGPT’s features are also changing quickly. One of these features is the ability to save your conversations so you don’t have to copy and paste them later.
How ChatGPT saves your conversations for later use
If you use ChatGPT on your computer most of the time, you may have already seen this change. On desktop, ChatGPT added a new sidebar that shows all of your past conversations (at least all of the conversations ChatGPT saved). But you don’t have to install ChatGPT on your computer to get to your old chats. If you use the web app on your phone to ask ChatGPT questions, like I do, you can find this new sidebar by tapping the hamburger menu in the top left corner of the screen.
ChatGPT gives each chat a title based on the first question you ask in it. It’s actually pretty cool to see: While ChatGPT answers your question, the title will still say “New chat.” Once the chat is over, it gives the chat a new name based on what was said. I asked ChatGPT, “What math concepts are important to know when learning to code?” It told me the answer, and then it changed the name of the chat to “Math for Coding.”
You can change the name ChatGPT gave the chat if you don’t like it. Choose the chat you want to change, tap the pencil icon to give it a new name, and then tap the checkmark to save the change.
Even though there’s no reason to think ChatGPT will stop saving these chats in the future, they’re still not backed up in the usual way. If you have an especially interesting conversation with the chatbot and want to remember it (or share it with your friends), you could still copy and paste it into a note on your phone or computer.
How to get rid of chats on ChatGPT
Some people might find it helpful that this chat history is automatically saved, but others might not. After all, ChatGPT used to be pretty short-lived: you’d have a conversation, then leave it behind and start a new one the next time.
If you want to, it’s easy to delete conversations: Choose the conversation you want to delete, click on the trash can icon, then click on the checkmark. You can also delete all of your past conversations by clicking “Clear conversations” at the bottom of the sidebar.
