OpenAI removes access to sycophancy-prone GPT-4o model
In Brief Posted: 10:10 AM PST · February 13, 2026 Image Credits:Silas Stein/picture alliance / Getty Images Amanda Silberling OpenAI removes access to sycophancy-prone GPT-4o model Starting Friday, OpenAI will cease providing access to five legacy ChatGPT models, including the popular but controversial GPT-4o model. The 4o model has been at the center of a number of lawsuits concerning user self-harm, delusional behavior, and AI psychosis. It remains OpenAI’s highest scoring model for sycophancy. In addition to GPT-4o, the GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini models have also been deprecated. OpenAI intended to retire GPT-4o in August, when it unveiled the GPT-5 model. But at the time, there was enough backlash for OpenAI to keep the legacy model…
