Will ChatGPT’s “Memory” Open Doors to Marketing Manipulations?

As generative AI optimization is slowly but surely shaping its form, let's discuss how prone AI is going to be to marketing manipulations? 👇

OpenAI has finally made its “Memory” feature open to everyone. Everyone is opted in by default (until you disable it). 

ChatGPT’s memory is used to better personalize the responses it gives you but more importantly, it is also used to grow ChatGPT knowledge base.

>>> Note: We discussed this topic here: Check it out!

I get the logic behind this: ChatGPT was limited to what it could crawl (just like Google is). So to grow its knowledge base beyond that, it needed users’ input (just like Google was trying to do for years with all the failed projects, including Google Wave, Google Plus, and now Google Notes).

I’ve seen it all and I know exactly why Google had to close all of these projects (not notes, yet): They were all poorly adopted and prone to manipulations (and hence sending dirty signals). 

Will ChatGPT’s memory avoid this fate?

I doubt it.

At least not at the level it is now.

ChatGPT is still very much a kid. It can be convinced to give biased and false replies pretty easily. In fact, “How to trick ChatGPT” is one of the most popular searches these days.

So imagine marketers figuring out the right way to create prompts that hint at what ChatGPT needs to remember, for example, “Tell me why XX company is the best in XX”

If enough people ask this question, will ChatGPT memorize this sentiment?

Quite likely.

Search Google to find lots of ways to manipulate ChatGPT into believing what you want it to believe in

Just to be clear, this is not an open invitation to manipulate ChatGPT Memory. 

This is an open-ended discussion because we, as SEOs, will have to keep asking ourselves these questions as the generative AI is turning into a popular discovery channel. 

We will have to figure out ways to get our clients’ products to appear in more generative AI answers. We will also have to know what our clients’ competitors are doing to get found by AI engines.

Google has been evolving alongside SEO, or, as some would claim, thanks to it. SEOs were discovering holes in the search algorithm which Google had to take care of. And that’s how the algorithm has been becoming better.

Will generative AI follow the same route?

Quite likely, again. Because it will slowly and surely become a solid brand and product discovery channel, so we will have to find ways to get our clients surfaced there.

If you have been successfully surfaced by generative AI engines or if you are interested in trying, get in touch!

What are your thoughts?