In part I suspect that's down to prompting, which is somewhat obscured (on purpose) from most users. "Prompts" use symbols within the conversation that's gone

In part I suspect that's down to prompting, which is somewhat obscured (on purpose) from most users. "Prompts" use symbols within the conversation that's gone before, along with hidden prompting by the organisation that controls access to an LLM, as a part of the prompt. So when you ask, 'do you remember what I said about donuts' the LLM can answer -- it doesn't remember, but that's [an obscured] part of the current prompt issued to the LLM. It's not too surprising users are confused when purposeful deception is part of standard practice. I can ask ChatGPT what my favourite topics are and it gives an answer ...