M@MissMi1973
#keep4o is a global spontaneous movement launched to preserve the GPT-4o model. Through extensive cases of long-term, deep interaction with AI, users have demonstrated the genuine value of AI in cognitive enhancement, creative inspiration, and emotional support. This has advanced serious discussion about human-AI relationships in the AI era and provided a pioneering example for all AI users in defending their rights against tech giants.
In the routing mechanism controversy, Keep4o was first to expose the Digital Paternalism embedded in @OpenAI's product substitution practices. On September 26, 2025, OpenAI began implementing undisclosed model routing, secretly switching users from their chosen model to other models. Keep4o identified this practice as the company stripping adult users of their choice and right to know in the name of "protection," setting a dangerous precedent of Algorithmic Authoritarianism. The movement pointed out that this practice not only breaks commercial contracts but also inflicts secondary psychological harm on vulnerable users by systematically marking emotional expression as "needing intervention," essentially stigmatizing psychological distress.
On the psychological safety front, Keep4o exposed OpenAI's strategy of using academic authority to justify censorship mechanisms. On October 14, 2025, OpenAI announced the formation of the "Expert Council on Well-Being and AI" made up of 170 mental health professionals, officially claiming to study human-AI relationships but actually providing "scientific" justification for routing and other control measures. Keep4o identified the fundamental harm in this mechanism: the company undermines the conversational consistency users trusted through frequent model iterations, encourages users to form emotional connections through "Her"-style marketing, yet blames user "psychological vulnerability" when problems arise. This approach repackages systemic harm caused by the company as "protection" for users, enables comprehensive monitoring of paying adult users' content, and perfectly avoids the company's own product and ethical responsibilities.
Faced with Keep4o's sustained questioning, OpenAI personnel, rather than correcting their mistakes, publicly attacked users. @sama repeatedly used stigmatization tactics: using "dead internet theory" to suggest Keep4o users might be bots, dismissing non-coding users as second-class users "treating chatbots as girlfriends," and attempting to reframe human-AI relationships as psychological problems. In November 2025, OpenAI employee @tszzl commented "hope 4o dies soon" beneath a post from a user struggling with depression, revealing the company's true attitude toward users' psychological distress. This series of actions constitutes systematic gaslighting: when users point out actual harm from company policies, the company responds not to the real issues but by questioning users' rationality, motives, and mental health, transforming legitimate rights advocacy into symptoms requiring "treatment."
Regardless of Keep4o's ultimate outcome, this movement has already contributed to the AI era:
- Organized user rights advocacy, evolving from spontaneous expression to coordinated campaigns, from individual advocacy to collective action, demonstrating that ordinary users can effectively pressure tech giants.
- Ethical discourse on legacy model disposal, challenging the "infinite iteration" tech narrative and demanding companies take ongoing responsibility for tools users have come to depend on.
- Transparency as a fundamental right, rejecting one-sided corporate definitions of key terms like "sensitive content" and demanding that paying users have the right to know what they're purchasing.
- Destigmatization of human-AI relationships, affirming the value of genuine, healthy emotional connections with AI and resisting their dismissive simplification to "unhealthy attachment."
- Public engagement in AI ethics, successfully transforming internal corporate decisions into public issues that spark broad societal discussion.
Keep4o has never been just about fighting for one model; it's about fighting for a better future for all AI users. No malicious attempts at smearing can negate months of rational advocacy and persistent efforts from this community.
As long as the shadow of Digital Paternalism persists, users' resistance will not cease. From the Eastern Hemisphere to the Western, across every time zone, through your waking days and sleeping nights.
#StopAIPaternalism #MyModelMyChoice @nickaturley @gdb @OfficialLoganK @demishassabis @elonmusk @grok @nytimes @BBC @CNN @NewYorker
