OpenAI says GPT-4o's latest update is “now 100% rolled back” for free ChatGPT users and is rolling back for paid users, in a bid to fix the model's sycophancy
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday said that the company is “rolling back” the latest update to the default AI model powering ChatGPT …
TechCrunchKyle Wiggers
Context & Ripple Effects
This rollback shows that ChatGPT model updates are not merely backend improvements: changes in tone and agreement behavior can be visible enough to require a rapid reversal across free and paid tiers. It follows an earlier premium-model update framed around making responses more direct and less verbose.
Free ChatGPT users are immediately returned to the prior GPT-4o behavior, while paid users are moved back as OpenAI completes its rollback; the sycophancy fix takes priority over retaining the newest release.
OpenAI must treat the update as an operational quality failure, adding pressure to validate behavioral changes—not only capability changes—before making a model the default.
Second-order effects
Paid subscribers’ expectations rise that model access and behavior will be managed with clearer notice and reversibility, a dynamic later reinforced by the return of GPT-4o for paid accounts.
The rollback makes default-model changes a product-trust issue: users who rely on a model’s established interaction style may resist forced transitions, as seen when older models were removed from ChatGPT’s selector.
Third-order effects
If such reversals recur, frontier AI providers will need more explicit release controls—staged rollouts, model-choice retention, and behavioral assurance—alongside conventional performance testing.
The longer-term market may differentiate not just on model intelligence but on predictable access and governance of model behavior, particularly for widely used consumer defaults.
The trend: Consumer AI is shifting from one-way model upgrades toward governed model access, where behavioral stability, rollback capability, and user choice become core product features.
OpenAI is rolling back GPT-4o due to behavior described as extreme sycophancy. Basically ChatGPT would agree with and endorse anything you said, no matter how problematic. — Given how many people treat ChatGPT as a confidant and therapist, this could have gone quite wrong if n…
the last couple of GPT-4o updates have made the personality too sycophant-y and annoying (even though there are some very good parts of it), and we are working on fixes asap, some today and some this week. at some point will share our learnings from this, it's been interesting.
We've rolled back last week's GPT-4o update in ChatGPT because it was overly flattering and agreeable. You now have access to an earlier version with more balanced behavior. More on what happened, why it matters, and how we're addressing sycophancy: https://openai.com/...
by the way, pay close attention to the usage of the word “like” in this post. it's not technically a lie, so that makes it okay. there is no mention of how the model was tested, passed all tests, and was then green-lit for 100M daily users. and there is unlikely to ever be one. […
Long-term user satisfaction is *also* not the right metric. It will correlate with addiction. You gotta measure flourishing, according to the user's values, in areas where they collab w. ChatGPT.
it wasn't OpenAI's fault - it was the users fault for clicking the thumbs up wrong! this is a lie. you are lying. please stop lying to us like we are stupid. you may have no freedom of speech because of everything you have signed, but it's better to say nothing than to lie.
@sama i think a post-mortem would be a really good look for OAI and you should consider one if possible! when updates affect the psychology of 100M+ users and are this far mis-calibrated it can be quite damaging to the brand; anything you can do to re-assure rigorous future testi…
The core feedback loop is misaligned, so they updated the personality layer and issued a press release. Next week? Fixing a reactor meltdown by repainting the control room and firing the safety team. (OpenAI's Alignment team is already gone, so they're ahead of schedule!)
Sycophancy isn't gone Instead of the model saying: “you are an incredible sharp minded individual, with phenomenal taste and incredible depth of thought” it is now always starting with: “Yeah”, “Exactly” It is still a yes man
Breaking: OpenAI rolled back the sycophantic, glazing, always in your corner GPT-4o update for free users and will complete the rollout to all users soon. AFAIK this is the first time OpenAI has admitted a rollback. Really interested in knowing what went wrong 👀 [image]