OpenAI removes access to sycophancy-prone GPT-4o model

TechCrunch · Feb 13, 2026 · Collected from RSS

Summary

The model is known for its overly sycophantic nature and its role in several lawsuits involving users' unhealthy relationships with the chatbot.

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In Brief Posted: 10:10 AM PST · February 13, 2026 Image Credits:Silas Stein/picture alliance / Getty Images Starting Friday, OpenAI will cease providing access to five legacy ChatGPT models, including the popular but controversial GPT-4o model. The 4o model has been at the center of a number of lawsuits concerning user self-harm, delusional behavior, and AI psychosis. It remains OpenAI’s highest scoring model for sycophancy. In addition to GPT-4o, the GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini models have also been deprecated. OpenAI intended to retire GPT-4o in August, when it unveiled the GPT-5 model. But at the time, there was enough backlash for OpenAI to keep the legacy model available for paid subscribers, who could manually choose to interact with that model. In a recent blog post, OpenAI noted that only 0.1% of customers have been using GPT-4o, but for a company with 800 million weekly active users, that small percentage still amounts to 800,000 people. Thousands of users have rallied against the retirement of 4o, citing their close relationships with the model. Topics Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Latest in AI

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Engadget8 days ago

OpenAI has officially retired the controversial GPT-4o model

OpenAI's GPT-4o may have survived its first brush with going offline, but it won't be as lucky this time. OpenAI has officially retired GPT-4o, the ChatGPT model that was seen as more conversational and notoriously sycophantic, on February 13. The news of GPT-4o's end was first announced in a post on the OpenAI website in January, but the discontinuation also included GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini from ChatGPT. It's not the first time that OpenAI has delisted GPT-4o as an option for ChatGPT. In August, the AI giant sunsetted the GPT-4o model in favor of rolling out and prioritizing the latest GPT-5 model at the time. However, a wave of user complaints led OpenAI to restore access to GPT-4o but with no guarantee that it'll be around forever. This time around, OpenAI doesn't seem very open to preserving access to GPT-4o, especially since it'll serve only a small portion of the user base. The company wrote on its website that "the vast majority of usage has shifted to GPT‑5.2, with only 0.1 percent of users still choosing GPT‑4o each day." On top of that, OpenAI is facing several wrongful death lawsuits that specifically mention the GPT-4o model. Despite the two weeks of notice before GPT-4o's last day online, there is still a vocal group of users mourning the loss of their AI boyfriends and even calling for OpenAI to open-source their preferred model. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-has-officially-retired-the-controversial-gpt-4o-model-181553067.html?src=rss

Wired9 days ago

OpenAI Is Nuking Its 4o Model. China’s ChatGPT Fans Aren’t OK

As OpenAI removed access to GPT-4o in its app on Friday, people who have come to rely on the chatbot for companionship are mourning the loss all over the world.

Gizmodo9 days ago

OpenAI Users Launch Movement to Save Most Sycophantic Version of ChatGPT

Right before Valentine's Day, too.

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"It also takes a lot of energy to train a human."

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Wikipedia editors have decided to remove all links to Archive.today, a web archiving service that they said has been linked to more than 695,000 times across the online encyclopedia.

OpenAI removes access to sycophancy-prone GPT-4o model

Full Article

Related Articles

OpenAI has officially retired the controversial GPT-4o model

OpenAI Is Nuking Its 4o Model. China’s ChatGPT Fans Aren’t OK

OpenAI Users Launch Movement to Save Most Sycophantic Version of ChatGPT

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OpenAI removes access to sycophancy-prone GPT-4o model

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OpenAI Is Nuking Its 4o Model. China’s ChatGPT Fans Aren’t OK

OpenAI Users Launch Movement to Save Most Sycophantic Version of ChatGPT

Move over, Apple: Meet the alternative app stores available in the EU and elsewhere

Sam Altman would like remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too

Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today after alleged DDoS attack

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Engadget8 days ago
OpenAI has officially retired the controversial GPT-4o model
OpenAI's GPT-4o may have survived its first brush with going offline, but it won't be as lucky this time. OpenAI has officially retired GPT-4o, the ChatGPT model that was seen as more conversational and notoriously sycophantic, on February 13. The news of GPT-4o's end was first announced in a post on the OpenAI website in January, but the discontinuation also included GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini from ChatGPT. It's not the first time that OpenAI has delisted GPT-4o as an option for ChatGPT. In August, the AI giant sunsetted the GPT-4o model in favor of rolling out and prioritizing the latest GPT-5 model at the time. However, a wave of user complaints led OpenAI to restore access to GPT-4o but with no guarantee that it'll be around forever. This time around, OpenAI doesn't seem very open to preserving access to GPT-4o, especially since it'll serve only a small portion of the user base. The company wrote on its website that "the vast majority of usage has shifted to GPT‑5.2, with only 0.1 percent of users still choosing GPT‑4o each day." On top of that, OpenAI is facing several wrongful death lawsuits that specifically mention the GPT-4o model. Despite the two weeks of notice before GPT-4o's last day online, there is still a vocal group of users mourning the loss of their AI boyfriends and even calling for OpenAI to open-source their preferred model. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-has-officially-retired-the-controversial-gpt-4o-model-181553067.html?src=rss

Wired9 days ago
OpenAI Is Nuking Its 4o Model. China’s ChatGPT Fans Aren’t OK
As OpenAI removed access to GPT-4o in its app on Friday, people who have come to rely on the chatbot for companionship are mourning the loss all over the world.

Gizmodo9 days ago
OpenAI Users Launch Movement to Save Most Sycophantic Version of ChatGPT
Right before Valentine's Day, too.

TechCrunchabout 3 hours ago
Move over, Apple: Meet the alternative app stores available in the EU and elsewhere
A list of some of the alternative app stores iPhone users in the EU can try today.

TechCrunchabout 14 hours ago
Sam Altman would like remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too
"It also takes a lot of energy to train a human."

TechCrunchabout 15 hours ago
Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today after alleged DDoS attack
Wikipedia editors have decided to remove all links to Archive.today, a web archiving service that they said has been linked to more than 695,000 times across the online encyclopedia.