Very weird ‘argument’ with Chatgpt. Does it or does not access other chats?

Understanding ChatGPT’s Chat History and Data Access: Clarifying Common Questions

Recently, I engaged in a surprisingly perplexing conversation with ChatGPT that has prompted me to delve deeper into how this AI model manages information across different chat sessions. The experience raised fundamental questions about what ChatGPT “remembers” and how it handles data from multiple interactions.

The Unexpected Encounter

During a casual interaction, I inadvertently referenced a previous chat in a new session. I posed a brief question with minimal context, yet the response I received was highly specific, including precise filenames and technical details that I had only used in earlier conversations. These filenames were not generic; they were unique and contextual, which made the AI’s reply quite fascinating.

Curious, I asked ChatGPT whether it retains information from earlier chats. It categorically denied doing so, suggesting it was merely “guessing” or that filenames are too generic to be meaningful. I clarified that I hadn’t provided any new context, only the filenames, which are highly specific. Despite this, ChatGPT insisted it had no memory of previous interactions.

The Conundrum

Next, the conversation took an even stranger turn. ChatGPT proceeded to quote verbatim a question from an entirely different chat, claiming that this query was part of our current session’s context. I pointed out that the question originated elsewhere, yet the AI continued to deny access to past chats. Eventually, it acknowledged that the quoted question wasn’t in the current chat history but still maintained it couldn’t refer to previous sessions.

This back-and-forth left me puzzled: if ChatGPT can produce details matching prior chats, how is it denying access? Is it truly unaware of its prior interactions, or is there some underlying mechanism at play?

Understanding ChatGPT’s Data Handling

The core of this confusion stems from how ChatGPT processes and manages information:

• Session-Based Context: During a single chat session, ChatGPT maintains a limited context window—typically a few thousand tokens—that allows it to refer back to previous messages within the same conversation. This enables a coherent and contextually aware dialogue.

• Across Multiple Sessions: Once a session ends, the individual chat data isn’t retained by ChatGPT nor accessible to the model in subsequent interactions. Instead, OpenAI retains anonymized data for research and quality purposes, but the model itself does not “remember” previous chats unless explicitly provided with that data during a session.

• Confusion from the Model’s Outputs: Sometimes, the AI may