Want OpenAI’s newest AI? You’ll have to wait as White House says GPT-5.6 is for US first

SAN FRANCISCO, June 27 — OpenAI on Friday launched a US-only preview of its latest powerful AI model series to a limited group of partners at the request of the US government, the company said.

The release comes two weeks after the White House took Silicon Valley by surprise by ordering OpenAI’s rival Anthropic to ban all foreign nationals from accessing its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, citing national security concerns.

Anthropic swiftly shut down all access to those models, saying it could not reliably comply with the restriction on foreign nationals.

The latest models from leading AI companies, such as Anthropic’s Mythos series and now OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, have drawn major concerns over their reportedly unprecedented ability to identify software vulnerabilities — weaknesses in code that hackers can exploit.

Under pressure over the novelty of their capabilities, Trump earlier this month signed an executive order setting up a voluntary federal review of national security risks in advanced AI models before their release.

The White House has communicated little about how it will enforce its executive order – in which companies are understood to be participating voluntarily – and what models would fall under its review rules.

The intervention was striking for a White House that has otherwise pushed to loosen AI oversight — even moving to block states from writing their own rules.

The strong action against Anthropic has drawn accusations of government overreach, and OpenAI said it was uncomfortable with the process it was required to follow for its new models.

OpenAI said it briefed the US government on its new models’ capabilities ahead of the launch and, at the government’s request, is beginning with a limited preview for a select group of trusted partners whose identities have been shared with authorities.

The partners are US-based, but OpenAI said overseas employees at those companies or entities would also have access to the new models.

“We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” OpenAI said in a blog post.

“It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them. We are taking this short-term step because we believe it is the strongest path to broader availability in the coming weeks.”

When Anthropic was initially targeted, some believed the safety-focused company was being unfairly singled out by the Trump administration for political reasons.

In an earlier clash with the White House, Anthropic angered Trump’s team by refusing to allow its technology to be used for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, leading the Pentagon to cancel its contracts with the company.

That feud is now being litigated in two separate lawsuits.

Three new models

OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 series comprises three new models: Sol, the company’s new flagship; Terra, a mid-range model for everyday work; and Luna, a fast, low-cost option.

Once broadly available, Terra would be priced at half the cost of its predecessor GPT-5.5, the company said, as it seeks to lock in customers amid fierce competition from Anthropic and Google.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have filed confidential IPO documents with US regulators and are targeting public listings at valuations approaching US$1 trillion (RM4.08 trillion), raising the commercial stakes of the AI arms race between them. — AFP