OpenAI's Memory Trap

If they could go back 20 years, what CEO wouldn’t try and do something different to avoid the strategic stranglehold of the big tech monopolies that sit astride the internet today? App-makers rushed into the lucrative distribution channel of Apple’s App Store, only to now find themselves strangled by 30% commissions. Developers scrambled to connect to Facebook’s social graph APIs, only to find their access throttled once Facebook had used their app data to supercharge their own advertising business.

Well, today we’re facing a similar moment — a huge trap wrapped within the opportunities presented in this infancy of AI.

And the first glimpse of what lies ahead is OpenAI’s “memory” improvements, which the company last week began rolling out to free users of ChatGPT.

Promise and peril

Sam Altman has called it a “surprisingly great feature” because it creates “ai systems that get to know you over your life, and become extremely useful and personalized.”

That undersells it, actually. The notion of personalized memory is more than a great feature, it’s the key to unlocking AI that will give us all unbelievable utility. It’s what Tim envisioned when he wrote about Charlie — the AI assistant that knows everything about you — almost 10 years ago. And it’s why we built Agentic Wallets at Inrupt.

But, delivered by OpenAI, it’s an existential threat to consumer freedom and independence. If that doesn't scare both consumers and the companies that serve them, then I don't know what will. This isn't just about controlling interfaces or data pipelines - it's about becoming the controller of people's minds by capturing their data. When an AI system remembers your preferences, past decisions, intimate details, and work history, it doesn't just know everything you do — it begins to determine and shape what you'll be allowed to do next. That level of cognitive integration represents a fundamentally deeper form of lock-in and control of people than anything we've seen before. The more consumer activity and data captured by ChatGPT, the more every other business becomes subject to OpenAI’s rules for accessing those consumers.

Don’t take it from me. Here’s how Jeff Morris Jr., an AI investor and former VP of Product at Tinder, puts it: “OpenAI and others who win memory will unlock retention, defensibility, and the most powerful network effects we’ve seen since social graphs.” Which, in lay terms means that the AI companies that grab the most consumer “memories” will become dominant overlords that’ll make Facebook et al seem like kids play.

In this world, an AI assistant that knows you intimately becomes your only interface to the digital world. Everything that used to be a Google search, every shopping session, every transaction, every new service signup, and every personal communication will soon be routed through your friendly, capable AI “buddy”. A recent report on consumer adoption found that already 27% of people use GenAI at least half the time they do an internet search.

The more you use this particular AI assistant, the more it gets to know you. The better it is at serving your needs. The less likely you are to ever, ever “leave” and try a different AI.

Imagine the position it puts the rest of the commercial world in if one (or two or three) companies control that kind of interface, and all the personal “memory” data we generate. Today’s big tech platforms have each built massive businesses by controlling the consumer interfaces for just a portion of those kinds of activities. They were able to turn those points of control into some of the highest-margin businesses we’ve ever seen, to the detriment of every other consumer business. This time around it’s going to go faster and consolidate even more control.

The way out

The only solution is to change the control point. We can’t put it in the center of yet another tech platform. We need to put individuals in control of their own “memories” — their data, connections, and intentions — so that they can choose to share them with whichever business promises to best serve them.

That’s what Agentic Wallets allow us to do. Built on open W3C standards, they allow for deep personalization without lock-in. Unlike proprietary memory systems, Agentic Wallets use cryptographically-secure, open and free identity standards that ensure data is never held hostage. The underlying protocol, called Solid, enables granular permission controls and makes data fully portable across any compliant service — creating a per-person digital memory bank that no single vendor can manipulate or control.

Agentic Wallets allow any business to deliver the “extremely useful and personalized” AI systems that Altman talks about. And not because they’ve sneakily sucked up and control massive amounts of personal data, but because each of their customers gets to decide what to share access to, exactly when it’s needed.

This is a profound difference. AI changes from a closed captured market controlled by a few monopolist gatekeepers, into a fair and open ecosystem where innovation and opportunity flourishes. For businesses, this means direct customer relationships without intermediary fees. For users, it means genuine choice and control over their digital lives. And for society, it means preserving the competitive markets that drive progress instead of surrendering to digital feudalism. The companies that embrace this approach now will be positioned as market leaders in the coming era of digital business.

Individuals in control, benefits for all sides.

So, what’s different? It works for us — not some third party. We call it Charlie.