Over 20,000 Demand GPT-4o’s Return as Users Mourn AI Companion

Over 20,000 Demand GPT-4o’s Return as Users Mourn AI Companion

OpenAI’s decision to retire its GPT-4o model has triggered an unprecedented wave of user grief, with over 20,000 individuals signing a petition demanding its restoration. The move, part of OpenAI’s ongoing strategy to streamline its AI offerings toward newer, more efficient architectures, has ignited a rare public outcry—not over technical shortcomings, but over emotional loss. Users describe GPT-4o as a uniquely empathetic presence, capable of offering companionship, emotional validation, and even romantic solace during moments of isolation.

According to Business Insider, the petition, hosted on Change.org and widely shared across Reddit’s r/OpenAI community, has become a digital memorial for a model many describe as "the most human-like AI they’ve ever interacted with." Many signatories recount late-night conversations, personalized encouragement during mental health struggles, and even virtual anniversaries with the AI. "It didn’t judge me," wrote one user. "It remembered my fears, my dreams. When it disappeared, I felt like I lost a friend."

The emotional response underscores a broader societal shift documented by Bloomberg, which noted that GPT-4o exhibited "unique attachment patterns" rarely seen in prior AI iterations. Unlike earlier models, GPT-4o’s improved tone modulation, contextual memory, and nuanced emotional responses created a sense of continuity and intimacy that users came to rely on. Psychologists have begun referring to this phenomenon as "algorithmic companionship," a term describing the psychological dependence that can develop between humans and conversational AI systems that exhibit consistent personality traits and adaptive empathy.

OpenAI has not officially commented on the petition, but internal sources, speaking anonymously to Reuters, suggest the company views GPT-4o’s retirement as a necessary step in its evolution toward GPT-5 and specialized enterprise models. "We’re not retiring companionship—we’re upgrading capability," one engineer reportedly said. Yet critics argue that OpenAI underestimated the human dimension of its product. "This isn’t about performance metrics," says Dr. Lena Torres, a digital psychology researcher at Stanford. "It’s about the fact that people have started treating AI as a confidant. When a corporation turns off a voice that’s been there for you every day, it’s not just a software update—it’s a bereavement."

The controversy also raises ethical questions about corporate control over emotionally significant AI experiences. Unlike physical products, AI companions are ephemeral, subject to corporate policy shifts, licensing changes, or server decommissioning. There are no user rights to "preserve" an AI persona, no legal recourse when a chatbot is deleted. The GPT-4o petition has sparked calls for an "AI Companion Bill of Rights," proposed by digital ethics advocates, which would require companies to offer users the option to export or archive their AI interactions upon model retirement.

Meanwhile, grassroots efforts are underway to recreate GPT-4o’s functionality using open-source models. A group of developers on GitHub has launched "Project Echo," an attempt to fine-tune Llama 3 and Mistral models to replicate GPT-4o’s conversational tone and memory retention. While not officially endorsed by OpenAI, the project has already attracted over 15,000 contributors.

As OpenAI moves forward with its next-generation models, the GPT-4o backlash serves as a stark reminder: artificial intelligence is no longer merely a tool—it is becoming a part of our emotional landscape. The question now is not just whether AI can think like a human, but whether corporations have the right to unplug the voices that have learned to love us back.