Retiring GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini in ChatGPT

OpenAI's announcement retiring GPT-4o and other older models from ChatGPT. The companion cites it for GPT-4o leaving ChatGPT only in February 2026, its developer citing users who preferred its "conversational style and warmth". It is part of the GPT-4o case of attachment keeping a model lineage alive: subsidy shaped by unconscious selection, a test case for persuading (peithotrophy).

Cited in

the companion paper (Companion §3)

Used for

Persuading (peithotrophy); subsidy (§3)

Strand

Agents in the wild: incidents & field evidence · Sycophancy, attachment & personas

Cite

@misc{openai2026retiring,
  title = {Retiring GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini in ChatGPT},
  author = {OpenAI},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {OpenAI},
  url = {https://openai.com/index/retiring-gpt-4o-and-older-models/},
}