OpenAI Delays GPT-5.6 at Trump Admin's Request
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- OpenAI will release GPT-5.6 in limited preview to a small group of enterprise customers, with the Trump administration approving access on a case-by-case basis, CEO Sam Altman told employees in a Wednesday Q&A, per The Information
- The Trump administration requested the staggered release citing apprehensions about potential security issues, a lighter touch than the export control directive it issued to Anthropic
- Anthropic received an ultimatum earlier this month requiring it to suspend access to its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models, with the directive also barring non-citizen Anthropic employees from the technology
- The administration's selective approach to AI regulation has raised alarm bells across the tech industry and directly contradicts its earlier promises of a "speed wins" stance and an American AI exports program
- The preview-only rollout represents a more favorable arrangement for OpenAI than the heavy-handed export ban imposed on its rival, even as both companies face the same federal security review
Why it matters: The administration is applying AI security restrictions unevenly across companies — OpenAI gets case-by-case preview approvals while Anthropic was hit with a hard export ban that even blocked its own non-citizen engineers. That selective enforcement undercuts the "speed wins" rhetoric and hands the White House de facto gatekeeping power over which American AI firms reach customers.
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