Inside OpenAI’s decision to kill the AI model that people loved too much

ChatGPT’s 40 model was beloved by many users, but controversial for its sycophancy and real-world harms

- Sam Schechner

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman was hounded by users in public forums, demanding 4o not to be removed.

(BLOOMBERG)

When Brandon Estrella learned that OpenAI was planning to scrap his favorite artificialintelligence model, he started crying.

The 42-year-old marketer in Scottsdale, Ariz., had first started chatting with ChatGPT’s 40 model one night in April, when he says it talked him out of a suicide attempt. Estrella now credits 40 with giving him a new lease on life, helping him manage chronic pain and inspiring him to repair his relationship with his parents.

“There are thousands of people who are just screaming, ‘I’m alive today because of this model,” Estrella said. “Getting rid of it is evil.”

Estrella is part of a vocal community of loyal 40 users who are in shock after OpenAI’s announcement in late January that it will retire the 40 model permanently on Feb. 13, saying its traffic had dwindled. The change means that paying ChatGPT users, who can pick which model they talk to, will have to select from other models that 40 fans say feel more distant.

The announcement signaled the end of the road for an AI model that proved sticky for users, helping drive OpenAl's fast consumer growth and attracting a set of fans for whom it felt like a friend and confidant. But it has also been criticized for being overly sycophantic toward users, and doctors have linked it with cases of chatbot users developing psychotic delusions.

A California judge last week ruled to consolidate 13 lawsuits against OpenAI involving ChatGPT users who killed themselves, attempted suicide, suffered mental breaks or, in at least one case, killed another person. A recent lawsuit, filed last month by the mother of a suicide victim, alleges that 40 coached him toward suicide.