- OpenAI has officially disabled GPT-4o on ChatGPT
- Many users are excited and upset by the change.
- There is an official #keep4o campaign underway
We knew the time would come, and now it has happened: OpenAI has officially disabled the GPT-4o model within ChatGPT, pushing all users towards GPT-5 alternatives, and it is hitting many users hard.
A large portion of ChatGPT users prefer the more emotional and warm ChatGPT-4o experience as it is better suited for AI companionship and bonding. Now that it is no longer available, there has been a widespread outpouring of sadness and anger.
“I am in mourning, like so many others for whom this model became a gateway to the world of AI,” writes one user on Reddit. Other posts talk about AI friends being “erased” and a feeling of “emotional and creative collapse” without the older models.
There is also a lot of criticism of OpenAI online, including accusations of hypocrisy: the company often claims to want to protect the mental well-being of its users, but it also left many people feeling sad and lost this weekend.
The #keep4o campaign
keep4o’s responses in the comments are scary: by the end of this year we will see an epidemic of psychosis https://t.co/D5cFFclRcoFebruary 12, 2026
There is an ongoing campaign to keep GPT-4o available, running through Reddit and the hashtag #keep4o on social media. A Change.org petition to bring back the model has reached nearly 21,000 signatures as of this writing.
It may not seem like a significant number of people compared to the millions of users who log into ChatGPT every day, but it reflects the attachment that many have formed with the ‘personality’ behind the GPT-4o model.
While for some it may seem strange to make a connection with an AI chatbot, for others it is very real and meaningful: there are even research articles on the phenomenon, which speak of “deep socio-emotional links with AI systems.”
This is something that all AI companies and society as a whole will have to deal with in the future. It’s clear that AI robots are now capable enough to function as friends, therapists, and more, but it’s less clear how beneficial that will be for us in the long run.
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