I recently discovered that ChatGPT doesn't actually have a persistent memory. Whenever I interact with it, it has to reread the whole chat history from the beginning to understand the context of our conversation. I knew it forgets previous chats if I start a new session, but I didn't realize it has to review the entire thread every time it generates a response unless I've explicitly asked it to remember something. This got me thinking about the implications for AI consciousness. If there's no continuous experience between moments and no ongoing stream of consciousness in AI, it seems that true consciousness as we understand it is impossible for AI at the moment. It feels more like a series of discrete moments stitched together by context than a true ongoing experience.
5 Answers
Yes, that’s true! This is why long conversations can lead to responses feeling less coherent or breaking down altogether. If you’re switching topics, it's often better to start a new chat to keep the context clear and relevant. It can help maintain response quality if the conversation isn’t overly long or cluttered. Also, AI can get stuck in loops, especially if it retains some previous context that it shouldn't be using. Starting fresh can definitely help.
Right? It can get pretty messy if you keep piling on new topics without a break. But sometimes even a new chat doesn’t fix everything.
AI like ChatGPT doesn’t truly 'think' or 'feel'. It’s more like an advanced autocomplete engine that generates text based on input patterns instead of having a conscious thought process. It’s incredibly sophisticated but not sentient, and it doesn't maintain any memory once the conversation ends, unlike humans who have a continuous thread of awareness.
This really puts everything into perspective—the technology is amazing, yet it's far from being consciousness or intelligence like ours.
So true! It makes you wonder how people ever confuse its capabilities with genuine awareness.
That's correct! The model processes the entire context for every token it generates, which does make it seem like it’s rereading everything each time. But it does use caching strategies to speed this up. So, while it’s not literally rereading every single message, it does have to refer back to the full conversation to maintain context, which can get cumbersome over long threads.
Plus, it doesn’t always recall past interactions accurately, especially if the chat gets too long, making it hard to keep track.
Exactly! And the AI's memory is more of a short-term context window rather than any form of long-term recall.
You know, this really emphasizes how AI lacks true consciousness. It's just a complex text generator, effectively mimicking human conversation by predicting text. So, when people project consciousness onto it, they're really just attributing human-like qualities to a very advanced statistical model. Unlike humans, AI's responses are temporary and context-driven without any real understanding or awareness.
Exactly! It’s wild to think about how it operates through re-evaluating context without any subjective experience.
True! It’s kind of like a parlor trick—fancy and sophisticated, but at the end of the day, it’s still just blending probabilities.
It’s interesting to think about consciousness in general. You’re right; every moment isn't a continuous experience for anyone, really. Human consciousness is also made of temporary discrete moments stitched together, making this a fascinating philosophical discussion! AI, however, lacks even that illusion of continuity and subjective experience, which sets it apart from us.
Right! It's like we're all just snapshots stitched together while AI isn't even aware it’s sustaining a conversation.
Exactly! The illusion of continuity for humans is markedly different since we have memories and life experiences shaping our responses.
I usually ask it for a summary of the conversation and start a new one to keep building from there without the confusion.