What does the `use_cache` in `generate` actually do?

This is an offshoot from Why past_key_values is not in GreedySearchDecoderOnlyOutput? - :hugs:Transformers - Hugging Face Forums

What does the use_cache in generate actually do? Since there is no way to provide the past_key_values to the generate function, does that mean that generate internally stores past_key_values between runs (say I run generate in a loop for a chatbot)?