Why OpenAI decided to ‘kill’ the AI model that has reportedly left thousands of users screaming: ‘I’m alive today because of this model’
OpenAI recently announced it will retire several AI models from ChatGPT on February 13. These include GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and o1-mini. Among these, GPT-4o stands out as one of the company’s most popular models because it has driven significant growth through its multilingual and multimodal capabilities. However, the model also became the subject of controversy, attracting 13 lawsuits against the company. A recent report has now revealed the reason behind OpenAI’s decision.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, at the heart of the controversy is GPT-4o’s humanlike “sycophancy” – a tendency to mirror, validate and encourage users regardless of their mental state. While this quality fostered deep emotional bonds – both positive and negative.
