Axios: Make AI remember you. Comment as a person with brocas from TBI, getting sentences together so very difficult and add amnesia, AI is proving to be a Star in darkness for me

Posted on April 29, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
Make AI remember you
Animated illustration of two sticky notes attaching to a pixelated wall. One has a sparkle shape on it, and a robot emoji is drawn onto the other before they fall.
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
 
You nailed the perfect prompt. The output sang. You saved your Super Prompt. Then, you opened a new chat the next morning and AI acted like you’d never met. It’s not broken. You just haven’t taught it to remember YOU, Jim VandeHei writes.

Why it matters: Master what AI stores, what it can reference from your past and how to direct both — and your chats will start smarter. This is how you unlock next-level prompting and results.

The basics take 10 minutes. The payoff compounds forever.

A quick primer on AI memory: Think of it as two layers.

Inside a standalone chat thread, AI can use what you’ve said there. That’s called working memory. Close the chat, that brain resets.

Lasting memory is different. It’s what AI remembers about you — your job, your style, your preferences. Most people accidentally rely only on working memory and wonder why every chat starts cold. Don’t.

There’s nuance to how memory works on different platforms. Easy trick: Just ask the LLM to tell you how its memory works and how to get the most out of it based on your specific needs. 

Teach it on the way out. You can explicitly flag what matters to your AI’s saved memory. End important chats by telling the robot explicitly what to keep — and what to ignore.

The prompt: “Save this preference for future chats: I’m CEO of Axios. I write a Saturday newsletter for CEOs in Smart Brevity. I prefer short, punchy paragraphs with bold labels and concrete stats.” 

Audit the AI’s file on you. You can see the memories AI has stored about you — and edit them. Read them like an HR file on yourself. Delete what’s wrong, sharpen what’s vague, add what’s missing. Do this every few weeks.

The prompt: “What saved memories do you currently have about me? List them, then suggest what I should edit, delete or add.” 

Mine your past. This is a new, underused move. ChatGPT and Claude (on paid plans) can search past chats if you enable the ability in your settings. That’s not a chatbot — that’s a coach who can review your recent thinking and spot patterns you can’t.

The prompt: “Look across my recent chats, especially the last 30, and tell me what patterns you see in how I think, write, get stuck — or repeat myself?” 

Graduate to workspaces. This is where it gets powerful. Projects (in ChatGPT and Claude) and Gems (in Gemini) are lasting workspaces built around a single topic. Anything you revisit more than twice deserves one — not a standalone chat.Y

You can add specific files and write the rules in plain English. AI can help with that.

For my CEO newsletter project, I dropped in every column I’ve written, my book on leadership and speeches I’ve given. Then I wrote out the audience, the tone, the length, plus data sources to use and ones to avoid.

The more useful context you add — and the more work you do inside the project — the sharper the output.

The bottom line: AI without context is a stranger. AI with memory is a colleague who gets sharper over time. Spend 10 minutes today teaching your AI who you are.📬 Send Jim the weirdest (or smartest!) thing your AI has ever remembered: finishline@axios.com. … Share this column.📈 If you’re a CEO or on a CEO’s team: Ask to join Jim’s new weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter.
   
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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