Assessing Working Memory Capacity of ChatGPT. (arXiv:2305.03731v1 [cs.AI])

Working memory is a critical aspect of both human intelligence and artificial
intelligence (AI), serving as a workspace for the temporary storage and
manipulation of information. This paper investigates working memory capacity of
ChatGPT, a state-of-the-art language model, by examining its performance on
N-back tasks. We begin by discussing the importance of working memory to humans
and AI, followed by the methods employed to assess working memory capacity of
ChatGPT. Our study compares behavioral performance of ChatGPT on verbal and
spatial N-back tasks to that of human participants reported in the literature,
revealing notable similarities. Our findings offer crucial insights into the
current progress in designing AI systems with human-level cognitive abilities
and hold promise for informing future endeavors aimed at enhancing AI working
memory and understanding human working memory through AI models.