Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
ChatGPT offers several ways to customize and personalize your conversations. You can share details about your life, including your name, your profession, or other tidbits. You're able to tell it what traits it should possess, such as patience, sympathy, or understanding. You can add and save certain facts about yourself and tell it to reference memories from past conversations.
That all sounds helpful. But what does ChatGPT do with the information it knows about you? I shared certain details about myself and my life to find out. Here's what happened.
Also: I talked to 5 AIs about my cat, Mr. Giggles - and it says a lot about the state of chatbots
First, I'll cover the ways that I customized and personalized ChatGPT. You can do this at the ChatGPT website, in the Windows or Mac app, or in the iOS or Android app. I found it easiest to do this at the website and the Windows app.
Before we move ahead, always be careful what personal information you share about yourself with ChatGPT or any AI. OpenAI promises that the details aren't accessible to staff members or are at least anonymized. Still, you'll want to be cautious. Share just enough about yourself to make the conversations more personalized and interesting. But don't reveal anything you wouldn't want another person to know about you.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
1. Create custom instructions To get started, click your profile icon and select Settings. At the Settings window, click the setting for Personalization and then select Custom instructions. In the field for "What should ChatGPT call you?" enter your first name or a nickname, whichever your prefer. In the field for "What do you do?" enter your profession. In my case, I told the AI that I was a freelance writer and journalist. The next field asks you to choose what traits ChatGPT should have. This is worth setting up as it will influence how the AI behaves in a conversation. Click any of the traits below to add them, such as chatty, witty, encouraging, or skeptical. Click the refresh button to display a new set of traits and click any you want to include. In return, ChatGPT will expand the words you select into full sentences. CNET: AI obituary pirates are exploiting our grief. I tracked one down to find out why In the field for "Anything else ChatGPT should know about you?" enter anything else about yourself that you'd want ChatGPT to know. On my end, I wrote that I'm married and that my wife and I own a black cat named Mr. Giggles. I also added that I'm a big fan of old movies, jazz, "Star Trek," "The Twilight Zone," "Doctor Who," and "Spider-Man." When done, turn on the switch for Enable for new chats and then click Save. Show more
Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
2. Use saved memories In the Memory section, turn on the switches for "Reference saved memories" and "Reference chat history." When referencing saved memories, ChatGPT will use the information you provided in the custom instructions. When referencing your chat history, the AI will use information you've shared in previous conversations. You'll want to try both options if you'd like to give ChatGPT that extra personal touch. Show more
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