26/06/2026
The Trump administration just asked OpenAI to limit the release of GPT-5.6 to select government-approved partners before any wider launch — citing security concerns stemming from the model’s capabilities, The Information reports.
Under the staggered rollout, OpenAI will preview the model to a small group of partners, with the government approving access “customer by customer.”
The intervention came as 5.6 is considered to have the same capability threshold as Mythos, with the government wanting to test it for safeguards.
In a memo, CEO Sam Altman told employees that this was the best path to getting 5.6 released, with a general release likely “a couple of weeks later.”
He also said that OAI has made it clear to the WH that this is not the preferred long-term model, and it will work toward a more sustainable release approach.
First, it was Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Now, it’s GPT-5.6. The pattern is clear: the U.S. is actively deciding when and how frontier AI reaches the public. The framing is security, not restriction, but the precedent is set. As models approach Mythos-level, government sign-off may become a new step before wider release.
Source: The Rundown AI Newsletter
