Reflecting on the world of LLMs like ChatGPT, there’s a glaring hiccup: they’re a tad forgetful. Picture this: Yesterday, you chatted with ChatGPT about heart-friendly foods. Today, you’re asking about cardio workouts. Instead of ChatGPT connecting the dots for you, and offering a combined health guide, you’re left playing 20 questions to get the full picture.
To solve for this, companies are racing to make AI remember better. But, let’s pause and think. What if there’s some magic in AI having a short memory?
Today, I want to make the case for having AI that does NOT retain context.
We already know how much of what we are presented with on various apps like Insta reels, Google news, etc. is governed by algorithms. Specifically, by “AI powered” algorithms.
If you interact with a few videos on cycling, the next many videos will make you feel like you are following Tour De France in depth. If you like a video describing an exotic dessert, you’ll suddenly get lots of food reels.
But here’s the twist: revisit after a few days, and it’s like meeting an old friend with partial amnesia. The algorithm wants to identify what you are curious about. It won’t show 100% of what it showed you the last time. The AI behind the app is trying to figure you out, again. And honestly, that’s kind of refreshing.
This might sound counterintuitive, but there’s beauty in this forgetfulness. It is a good thing. Maybe the best of things.
Maintaining context across sessions might be critical for specific use-cases (business tasks such as reporting, or customer service, for example) but for some content-heavy products, this “resetting of context” is a benefit. It’s like a digital detox, preventing us from getting stuck in an endless loop of the same-old.
We’re a curious bunch, right? One day it’s cycling, the next it’s gourmet cooking. We need AI that gets this – that understands our diverse moods and whims. Dabbling in many things is more our style than deep-diving into just one thing.
As the tech world evolves, here’s my two cents: Let’s strike a balance. Sometimes, it’s okay for AI to forget. It keeps things fresh, and more importantly, keeps us exploring. It allows for pull-back from the echo chamber that AI would otherwise create for us.
I hope that the companies building these products are able to identify the use cases and decide on retaining context only where required.