OpenAI will stagger the release of its newest artificial intelligence model, GPT 5.6, following a request from the Trump administration. Instead of a general public release, the company will provide the model in a limited preview to a small group of partners.
CEO Sam Altman informed staff that the government will be approving access customer by customer during this preview period. The request for the staggered rollout came from conversations with two key government agencies: the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The move signals an increasing effort by Washington to review frontier AI models before they are shipped widely. This development comes nearly two weeks after rival Anthropic PBC suspended its most capable offerings from the market under regulatory pressure, a situation that echoes the launch of Anthropic’s Mythos product.