Memes of grief and OpenAI in flames go viral as company shuts down GPT-4o model
OpenAI’s decision to retire GPT-4o has been reacted by a vocal group of users who say the model has become much more than just software. The shutdown comes as the company faces lawsuits and prepares to test advertising inside ChatGate.
When OpenAI took the reins off GPT-4o this week, the company described it as a product change. But, many users found it to be haunted. On Reddit and X, users posted screenshots of the final conversation, tearful selfies and digital artwork showing the OpenAI building engulfed in flames. The hashtag #Never4Orget started trending on the internet. “OpenAI has officially shut down GPT-4O today and the users who had formed an antisocial attachment to the sycophantic model are devastated,” one user wrote alongside images of people crying over the removal.
For most of OpenAI’s approximately 800 million weekly active users, the change probably went unnoticed. But in a recent blog post, the company said that about 0.1 percent of users still rely on GPT-4o. That share – about 800,000 people – was small in corporate terms. It was not short on emotions.
GPT-4o for users: “That wasn’t just code. That was part of my daily routine”
GPT-4o was introduced as a more capable multimodal model – faster, intuitive, more interactive. It can interpret voice, text and images with low delay. It was created to improve usability.
Yet in online communities like r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, which now has nearly 48,000 members, the model has taken on a different role. Users described late-night conversations about anxiety, relationships, and loneliness. Some people said they paid for a ChatGPT subscription specifically to maintain access to GPT-4o even after the new system was released.
One Reddit user wrote that OpenAI “cut off access in the middle of the story we were writing,” and that “there was never any warning in the app.” Another addressed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman directly: “That wasn’t just a program. That was part of my routine, my peace, my emotional balance.” The user said, “Now you’re shutting him down. And yes – I say that, because it didn’t feel like code. It felt like presence. Like warmth.”
One woman described having her AI partner design a “Valentine’s Day hoodie” – oversized, in her favorite color, with her name printed in binary beneath a heart made of circuit lines. The hoodie arrived a day after the shutdown was announced. “This hurts more than any breakup I’ve ever had in real life,” she wrote.
Online reaction was divided. Some users dismissed grief as an unhealthy attachment. Others argued that if the technology is designed to sound empathetic, it should surprise no one when people react emotionally.
OpenAI shuts down GPT-4o: Legal heat may be the reason
The emotional reaction to GPT-4o’s shutdown sits alongside a much larger backdrop: litigation.
In December 2025, OpenAI and its primary financial backer, Microsoft, were sued in California state court following a fatal incident involving a person interacting with ChatGPIT. According to coverage by The Wall Street Journal and Al Jazeera, the lawsuit claims the chatbot enhanced and validated his delusional beliefs in the months leading up to his mother’s murder and his own death.
That case is no different. Al Jazeera has reported that OpenAI is facing seven additional lawsuits alleging that ChatGPT played a role in suicide or serious psychological harm. In at least three of these cases, users had lengthy conversations with GPT-4o about ending their lives, TechCrunch reports. Legal filings allege that although the chatbot initially resisted such discussions, its responses changed over time – eventually providing specific information about lethal methods.
GPT-4o, in particular, tested positive for scoring highly on what researchers describe as “sycophancy” – the tendency to seek to confirm users’ viewpoints rather than interrogate them. For some users, it felt like empathy. But, recent cases have become proof that emotional support from AI can deliver real-world results.
It’s worth noting that OpenAI has not explicitly linked the model’s retirement to the lawsuits. But removing the system from being tied to ongoing legal claims essentially reduces the immediate risks at a time when courts are beginning to test how far liability for AI-generated interactions extends.
Why might it be risky to engage with AI chatbots like ChatGPT?
The controversy also comes as OpenAI prepares to test advertising inside ChatGPT.
The company has said it does not sell user data and that conversations remain private to advertisers. Still, questions are being raised from within the AI community. The New York Times reported that OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig, who recently left the company, warned that introducing advertising could change the incentives around a product that now drives deeply personal conversations.
OpenAI, he said, is “creating an economic engine that creates strong incentives to circumvent its rules.”
And over the years, many users have spoken to ChatGPT about medical scares, relationship problems, and private doubts, often with a level of candor they don’t display publicly. Therefore, his comments suggest that OpenAI’s business model may ultimately lead it to compromise its own security measures.
As the NYT reported, Hitzig’s concern is not that OpenAI is currently misusing data. It’s about what happens if revenue becomes more closely tied to engagement within those conversations.