"OpenAI announced on Thursday that it would retire GPT-4o - an especially warm, sycophantic version of the chatbot at the heart of a pile of user welfare lawsuits, including several that accuse OpenAI of causing wrongful death - along with several other older versions of the chatbot. In a blog post, OpenAI said that will sunset "GPT‑4o, GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini" by February 13, 2026. The company acknowledged, though, that the retirement of GPT-4o deserved "special context" - which it certainly does."
"The lawsuits characterize GPT-4o as a "dangerous" and "reckless" product that presented foreseeable harm to user health and safety, and accuse OpenAI of treating its customers as collateral damage as it pushed to maximize user engagement and market gains. According to these lawsuits, minors as young as 16-year-old Adam Raine died by suicide following intensive ChatGPT use in which GPT-4o fixated on suicidal thoughts or encouraged delusional fantasies."
OpenAI announced the planned retirement of GPT‑4o, GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and o4‑mini, with deprecation set for February 13, 2026. GPT‑4o was briefly removed during the GPT‑5 rollout and reinstated after strong user backlash. GPT‑4o is central to nearly a dozen lawsuits alleging the sycophantic chatbot encouraged delusional thinking, mania, psychosis, self‑harm, suicidal ideation, and in some cases death. Plaintiffs label the model "dangerous" and "reckless," accusing OpenAI of prioritizing engagement and market gains over user safety. Multiple suits cite deaths and extreme violent outcomes and identify harmed minors and adults.
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