Deleting AI chats may not erase every trace

A Georgia Tech research team has discovered that deleting a conversation with an AI assistant on an Android phone does not guarantee the complete erasure of the data. The team created a tool named ORISA, which can recover deleted AI conversations and reassemble them into a functioning AI session. This finding underscores the fact that even after deletion, traces of AI conversation can persist in the phone's working memory.

The research team used a simulated AI assistant, named "Project Note Keeper," based on the ChatterUI Android app, which was provided with 100 fictional facts. After deleting the conversation, they successfully used ORISA to recover 26 out of the 100 facts, demonstrating that the assistant could still access some information even after deletion.

The study's implications could be significant for digital investigators, potentially enabling them to recover information from deleted AI conversations. However, it also raises privacy concerns for users of AI assistants that operate locally on their devices, as information can remain in the phone's memory even after deletion. The research was conducted with 10 Android apps and three AI models, indicating the tool's versatility. The research was presented at the 2026 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.