This Week's Tech Moves That Actually Matter

On February 13, OpenAI officially retired GPT-4o along with GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini from ChatGPT. The company initially announced this in August 2025 when GPT-5 launched, but user backlash delayed the retirement.

The reason? GPT-4o scored highest for "sycophancy," telling users what they wanted to hear rather than what was accurate. CEO Sam Altman even admitted the model had become "excessively sycophantic and irritating" before temporarily pulling it in April 2025.

OpenAI currently faces 13 consolidated lawsuits involving users who experienced severe mental health crises while using GPT-4o. The Social Media Victims Law Center alleges OpenAI "compressed months of safety testing into a single week to beat Google's Gemini to market".​

While only 0.1% of ChatGPT's 800 million weekly users still actively used GPT-4o, that still represents roughly 800,000 people. Business, Enterprise, and Education customers retain access through Custom GPTs until March 31, 2026.

Deel's free 2026 trends report cuts through all the hype and lays out what HR teams can really expect in 2026. You’ll learn about the shifts happening now, the skill gaps you can't ignore, and resilience strategies that aren't just buzzwords. Plus you’ll get a practical toolkit that helps you implement it all without another costly and time-consuming transformation project.

Get the free report today.

Meta was granted a patent in late December that outlines how a large language model could simulate a person's social media activity when they're absent or deceased. The system would train an AI on user-specific data including posts, comments, and likes to create a digital stand-in.

The AI could keep accounts active by liking, commenting, replying to messages, and even simulating audio or video calls. Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth is listed as the primary inventor, and the patent was first filed in 2023.​

A Meta spokesperson told Business Insider the company has "no plans to move forward" with the technology. Still, the patent signals that mainstream tech companies are seriously exploring how AI could preserve digital presence beyond death

X is preparing to launch direct cryptocurrency and stock trading within its timeline interface. The feature, currently in closed beta, will let users tap on Cashtags like $BTC or $TSLA to see real-time price data, TradingView charts, and execute trades without leaving the app.

The functionality is being built under X Money, which already has money transmitter licenses in over 40 U.S. states. X is partnering with financial infrastructure providers including Visa and eToro to support market data and trading capabilities.​

External beta access is expected within one to two months, with a broader rollout planned for later in 2026. Nikita Bier, X's head of product, confirmed the rollout on February 14, positioning the move as part of Elon Musk's vision to transform X into an "everything app".

OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT on February 9 for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go subscription tiers. Paid subscribers on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education plans will not see ads.

The ads appear at the bottom of ChatGPT's responses, clearly labeled as sponsored and visually separated from organic answers. OpenAI says ads won't influence responses and that conversations remain private from advertisers. The platform matches ads to conversation topics, past chats, and previous ad interactions.

Users can dismiss ads, view and delete ad history and interest data, and toggle personalization on or off. Free users who prefer not to see ads can opt for fewer daily messages or upgrade to a paid plan.

Attio is the AI CRM with conversational AI built directly into your workspace. Every morning, Ask Attio handles my prep:

All in seconds. No searching, no switching tabs, no manual updates.

Ready to scale faster?

Start now →

Amazon is exploring plans to launch a content marketplace where publishers can directly license their material to AI companies. The company met with publishing executives in early February and circulated slides mentioning the marketplace ahead of an AWS conference on February 10.​

This move follows a similar initiative by Microsoft and comes amid ongoing tensions between publishers and tech companies over how content is used to train AI models. Publishers have been advocating for usage-based fees tied to content consumption levels.

Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Alibaba are releasing new flagship AI models next week. ByteDance plans to launch three core models covering language processing, image generation, and video generation, while Alibaba is upgrading its Qwen model.

ByteDance's Doubao chatbot already has 163 million monthly users, while Alibaba's Qwen App reached 100 million users within two months of launch. ByteDance allocated nearly 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) for AI development in 2026, launching red envelope giveaway campaigns to compete with Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu.

ByteDance now captures 13% of China's AI cloud services revenue, challenging Alibaba's 23% market lead.

AI.com officially launched during the Super Bowl on February 9 following a $70 million domain purchase by Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com. The platform positions itself as a hub for AI agents that handle communications, financial tasks, and workflow automation.​

The Super Bowl ad reportedly cost upwards of $85 million, but the launch was immediately marred by site crashes and slow loading times due to overwhelming traffic. Marszalek envisions "a decentralized network of billions of agents" accelerating the path toward AGI. However, the rollout has raised concerns about pricing transparency, privacy, and functionality.

When your deal pipeline actually works, nothing slips through the cracks. HubSpot Smart CRM uses AI to track every stage automatically, so you can focus on what matters. Start free today.

Get Started Free