Chatgpt’s new branching function is a good memory that AI chatbots are not people

On Thursday, OpenAi announced Those chatgpt users can now branch conversations in multiple parallel threads, which serve as a useful memory that AI chatbots are not people with fixed points of view, but rather malleable tools that you can reassembled and redirect. The company issued The position for all logged -in web users after years of user requests for the possibilities.

The function works by letting users hang over each message in a chatgpt conversation, click on “More promotions” and select “Branch in New Chat”. This creates a new discussion wire that includes all conversation history until that specific point, while the original conversation is kept intact.

See it almost as making a new copy of a “document” to edit while the original version keeps safe – except that “document” is a constant AI conversation with all its accumulated context. For example, a marketing team that brainstorms about advertising copy can now make individual branches to test a formal tone, a humorous approach or a completely different strategy – all arising from the same first setup.

The function deals with a long -term limitation in the AI ​​model where Chatgpt -users who wanted to try different approaches, had to overwrite their existing conversation after a certain point by changing an earlier prompt or starting completely fresh. Breaking makes it possible to easily explore what-IF scenarios-and unlike in a human conversation, you can try several different approaches.

A study from 2024 conducted by researchers from Tsinghua University and Beijing Institute of Technology suggested Those linear dialogue interfaces for LLMS serve bad scenarios with “multiple layers and many subtakes – such as brainstorming, structured knowledge learning and large project analysis.” The study showed that linear interaction forces users to “repeatedly compare, change and copy earlier content”, which increases cognitive load and reduces efficiency.

Some software developers have already responded positively to the update, with some comparison The function for git, the version management system with which programmers can make individual code branches to test changes without influencing the main code base. The comparison is logical: both enable you to experiment with different approaches while keeping your original work.