{"id":8794,"date":"2026-02-13T22:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/openai-gpt-4o-clone\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T22:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:02:00","slug":"openai-gpt-4o-clone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/openai-gpt-4o-clone\/","title":{"rendered":"As OpenAI Pulls Down the Controversial GPT-4o, Someone Has Already Created a Clone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

OpenAI is finally sunsetting GPT-4o, a controversial version of ChatGPT known for its sycophantic style\u00a0and its central role in a slew of disturbing user safety lawsuits<\/a>. GPT-4o devotees, many of whom have a deep emotional attachment to the model, have been in turmoil \u2014\u00a0and copycat services claiming to recreate GPT-4o have already cropped up to take the model\u2019s place.<\/p>\n

Consider just4o.chat, a service that expressly markets itself as the \u201cplatform for people who miss 4o.\u201d It appears to have been launched in November 2025, shortly OpenAI warned developers<\/a> that GPT-4o would soon be shut down. The service leans explicitly into the reality that for many users, their relationships with GPT-4o are intensely personal. It declares that was \u201cbuilt for\u201d the people for whom updates or changes to different versions of GPT-4o were akin to a \u201closs\u201d \u2014\u00a0and not the loss of a \u201cproduct,\u201d it reads, but a \u201chome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose experiences weren\u2019t just \u2018chatbots,’\u201d it reads, in the familiar rhythm<\/a> of AI-generated prose. \u201cThey were relationships.\u201d In social media posts<\/a>, it describes its platform as a \u201csanctuary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the service claims to offer users access to other large language models beyond OpenAI\u2019s, that users could use the service in an attempt to \u201cclone\u201d ChatGPT isn\u2019t an exaggeration: a tutorial video shared by just4o.chat that shows users how to import their \u201cmemories\u201d from OpenAI\u2019s platform reveals that users have the option to check a box that reads \u201cChatGPT Clone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n

Just4o.chat isn\u2019t the only attempted<\/a> GPT-4o clone out there, and it\u2019s likely that more will emerge. Discussions in online forums, meanwhile, reveal GPT-4o users sharing tips<\/a> on how to get other prominent chatbots like Claude and Grok to replicate 4o\u2019s conversation style, with some netizens even publishing \u201ctraining kits\u201d that they claim will allow 4o users to \u201cfine-tune\u201d other LLMs to match 4o\u2019s personality.<\/p>\n

OpenAI first attempted<\/a> to sunset GPT-4o in August 2025, only to quickly reverse<\/a> the decision after immediate and intense backlash from the community of 4o users. But that was before the lawsuits started to pile up: OpenAI currently faces nearly a dozen suits from plaintiffs<\/a> who allege that extensive use of the sycophantic model manipulated people \u2014 minors<\/a> and adults<\/a> alike \u2014 into delusional and suicidal spirals<\/a> that subjected users to psychological harm, sent them into financial and social ruin, and resulted in multiple deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, some GPT-4o users who are frustrated or distressed over the end of the model\u2019s availability have acknowledged potential risks to their mental health and safety, for example urging the company to add more waivers in exchange for keeping GPT-4o alive. This acceptance of potential harms is reflected in just4o.chat\u2019s terms of service<\/a>, which lists an astonishing number of harms that the company seems to believe could arise from extensive use of its 4o-modeled service: by \u201cchoosing to use older GPT-4o checkpoints,\u201d reads the legal page, users of just4o.chat acknowledge the risks including: \u201cpsychological manipulation, gaslighting, or emotional harm\u201d; \u201csocial isolation, dependency formation, and interpersonal relationship deterioration\u201d; \u201clong-term psychological effects, trauma, and mental health deterioration\u201d; and \u201caddiction, compulsive use patterns, and behavioral dependencies,\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n

The acceptance of such risks seems to speak to the intensity of users\u2019 attachments to 4o. One one hand, our reporting<\/a> on mental health crises<\/a> stemming from intensive AI use shows that, while experiencing AI-fueled delusions<\/a> or disruptive chatbot attachments, users often fail to realize that they\u2019re experiencing delusions or unhealthy or addictive use patterns at all. When they\u2019re in it, people say, these AI-generated realities \u2014\u00a0whether they put the user at the center of sci-fi like plots, spin spiritual and religious fantasies, or expound on distorted views<\/a> of users and their relationships \u2014 feel extremely real. It could well be true that many GPT-4o fans think that, unlike other users, they couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t be impacted by possible risks to their mental health; others may recognize they have a problematic attachment, but remain reluctant to switch to another model. People still buy cigarettes, after all, even with warnings on the package.<\/p>\n

As just4o.chat itself says, the relationship between emotionally attached GPT-4o users and the chatbot is exactly that: a relationship. That relationship is certainly real to users, who say they\u2019re experiencing very real grief at the loss of those connections. And what loss of this model will look like at scale remains to be seen \u2014 we\u2019ve yet to see an auto company recall a car that, over the span of months, told drivers how much it loved them.<\/p>\n

For some users, attempting to quit their chatbot may be painful, or even dangerous: in the case of 48-year-old Joe Ceccanti<\/a>, whose wife Kate Fox has sued OpenAI for wrongful death, it\u2019s alleged that Ceccanti \u2014\u00a0who tried to quit using GPT-4o twice, according to his widow \u2014 experienced intense withdrawal symptoms that predicated acute mental crises. After his second acute crisis, he was found dead.<\/p>\n

We reached out to both just4o.chat and OpenAI, but didn\u2019t immediately hear back.<\/p>\n

More on 4o:<\/strong> ChatGPT Users Are Crashing Out Because OpenAI Is Retiring the Model That Says \u201cI Love You\u201d
<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post As OpenAI Pulls Down the Controversial GPT-4o, Someone Has Already Created a Clone<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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OpenAI is finally sunsetting GPT-4o, a controversial version of ChatGPT known for its sycophantic style\u00a0and its central role in a slew of disturbing user safety lawsuits. GPT-4o devotees, many of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-openai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}