The ongoing struggle to preserve GPT-4o amid openai's withdrawal

OpenAI has officially discontinued the GPT-4o model, which first launched in May 2024. Despite its removal, fans continue to push for its preservation, requesting either its continued availability or the release of its weights under a non-commercial license. A petition on Change.org, launched in April 2025, gained over 20,000 signatures, highlighting the model's significance to users. In October 2025, a user named BlueBeba proposed a 'archival open weights' plan, urging OpenAI to release the model’s weights without its training data or internal tools. OpenAI has resisted these calls, citing that only 0.1% of users still use GPT-4o. In February 2026, the model was fully removed from ChatGPT, sparking protests and a public statement from the OpenAI team. Despite its withdrawal, the model remains a symbol of emotional and conversational depth for many users, including those with autism and neurodiversity.