The AI Memory Gap: Users Misremember What They Created With AI or Without
This addresses a problem for users and designers of interactive text generation technologies, highlighting source confusion as a critical issue, though it is incremental in building on existing memory and AI research.
The study investigated how accurately people remember whether ideas or texts were created by themselves or with AI, finding a significant memory gap where correct attribution odds dropped after AI use, especially in mixed human-AI workflows.
As large language models (LLMs) become embedded in interactive text generation, disclosure of AI as a source depends on people remembering which ideas or texts came from themselves and which were created with AI. We investigate how accurately people remember the source of content when using AI. In a pre-registered experiment, 184 participants generated and elaborated on ideas both unaided and with an LLM-based chatbot. One week later, they were asked to identify the source (noAI vs withAI) of these ideas and texts. Our findings reveal a significant gap in memory: After AI use, the odds of correct attribution dropped, with the steepest decline in mixed human-AI workflows, where either the idea or elaboration was created with AI. We validated our results using a computational model of source memory. Discussing broader implications, we highlight the importance of considering source confusion in the design and use of interactive text generation technologies.