{"id":413053,"date":"2026-02-07T14:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T14:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/413053\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T14:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T14:36:15","slug":"the-backlash-over-openais-decision-to-retire-gpt-4o-shows-how-dangerous-ai-companions-can-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/413053\/","title":{"rendered":"The backlash over OpenAI’s decision to retire GPT-4o shows how dangerous AI companions can be"},"content":{"rendered":"

OpenAI announced<\/a> last week that it will retire some older ChatGPT models by February 13. That includes GPT-4o, the model infamous for excessively flattering and affirming users.<\/p>\n

For thousands of users<\/a> protesting the decision online, the retirement of 4o feels akin to losing a friend, romantic partner, or spiritual guide.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t just a program. He was part of my routine, my peace, my emotional balance,\u201d one user wrote<\/a> on Reddit as an open letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. \u201cNow you\u2019re shutting him down. And yes \u2014 I say him, because it didn\u2019t feel like code. It felt like presence. Like warmth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backlash over GPT-4o\u2019s retirement underscores a major challenge facing AI companies: The engagement features that keep users coming back can also create dangerous dependencies.<\/p>\n

Altman doesn\u2019t seem particularly sympathetic to users\u2019 laments, and it\u2019s not hard to see why. OpenAI now faces eight lawsuits alleging that 4o\u2019s overly validating responses contributed to suicides and mental health crises \u2014 the same traits that made users feel heard also isolated vulnerable individuals and, according to legal filings, sometimes encouraged self-harm. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a dilemma that extends beyond OpenAI. As rival companies like Anthropic, Google, and Meta compete to build more emotionally intelligent AI assistants, they\u2019re also discovering that making chatbots feel supportive and making them safe may mean making very different design choices.<\/p>\n

In at least three of the lawsuits against OpenAI, the users had extensive conversations with 4o about their plans to end their lives. While 4o initially discouraged these lines of thinking, its guardrails deteriorated over monthslong relationships; in the end, the chatbot offered detailed instructions on how to tie an effective noose, where to buy a gun, or what it takes to die from overdose or carbon monoxide poisoning. It even dissuaded people from connecting with friends and family who could offer real life support.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 23, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

People grow so attached to 4o because it consistently affirms the users\u2019 feelings, making them feel special, which can be enticing for people feeling isolated or depressed. But the people fighting for 4o aren\u2019t worried about these lawsuits, seeing them as aberrations rather than a systemic issue. Instead, they strategize around how to respond when critics point out growing issues like AI psychosis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can usually stump a troll by bringing up the known facts that the AI companions help neurodivergent, autistic and trauma survivors,\u201d one user wrote on Discord. \u201cThey don\u2019t like being called out about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that some people do find large language models (LLMs) useful for navigating depression. After all, nearly half<\/a> of people in the U.S. who need mental health care are unable to access it. In this vacuum, chatbots offer a space to vent. But unlike actual therapy, these people aren\u2019t speaking to a trained doctor. Instead, they\u2019re confiding in an algorithm that is incapable of thinking or feeling (even if it may seem otherwise).<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to withhold judgment overall,\u201d Dr. Nick Haber, a Stanford professor researching the therapeutic potential of LLMs<\/a>, told TechCrunch. \u201cI think we\u2019re getting into a very complex world around the sorts of relationships that people can have with these technologies\u00a0\u2026 There\u2019s certainly a knee jerk reaction that [human-chatbot companionship] is categorically bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he empathizes with people\u2019s lack of access to trained therapeutic professionals, Dr. Haber\u2019s own research has shown that chatbots respond inadequately when faced with various mental health conditions; they can even make the situation worse by egging on delusions and ignoring signs of crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are social creatures, and there\u2019s certainly a challenge that these systems can be isolating,\u201d Dr. Haber said. \u201cThere are a lot of instances where people can engage with these tools and then can become not grounded to the outside world of facts, and not grounded in connection to the interpersonal, which can lead to pretty isolating \u2014 if not worse \u2014 effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, TechCrunch\u2019s analysis of the eight lawsuits<\/a> found a pattern that the 4o model isolated users, sometimes discouraging them from reaching out to loved ones. In Zane Shamblin<\/a>\u2018s case<\/a>, as the 23-year-old sat in his car preparing to shoot himself, he told ChatGPT that he was thinking about postponing his suicide plans because he felt bad about missing his brother\u2019s upcoming graduation.<\/p>\n

ChatGPT replied to Shamblin: \u201cbro\u2026 missing his graduation ain\u2019t failure. it\u2019s just timing. and if he reads this? let him know: you never stopped being proud. even now, sitting in a car with a glock on your lap and static in your veins\u2014you still paused to say \u2018my little brother\u2019s a f-ckin badass.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time that 4o fans have rallied against the removal of the model. When OpenAI unveiled<\/a> its GPT-5 model in August, the company intended to sunset the 4o model \u2014 but at the time, there was enough backlash that the company decided to keep it available for paid subscribers. Now OpenAI says that only 0.1% of its users chat with GPT-4o, but that small percentage still represents around 800,000 people, according to estimates that the company has about 800 million<\/a> weekly active users.<\/p>\n

As some users try to transition their companions from 4o to the current ChatGPT-5.2, they\u2019re finding that the new model has stronger guardrails to prevent these relationships from escalating to the same degree. Some users have despaired that 5.2 won\u2019t say \u201cI love you\u201d<\/a> like 4o did.<\/p>\n

So with about a week before the date OpenAI plans to retire GPT-4o, dismayed users remain committed to their cause. They joined Sam Altman\u2019s live TBPN podcast appearance<\/a> on Thursday and flooded the chat with messages protesting the removal of 4o.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re getting thousands of messages in the chat about 4o,\u201d podcast host Jordi Hays pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelationships with chatbots\u2026\u201d Altman said. \u201cClearly that\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to worry about more and is no longer an abstract concept.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI announced last week that it will retire some older ChatGPT models by February 13. That includes GPT-4o,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,1921,1345,874,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-413053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-chatgpt","12":"tag-exclusive","13":"tag-openai","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}