OpenAI voluntarily limits new AI models at government’s request

https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/openai-model-government-limit-request/823966/

Publish Date: 2026-06-29 11:09:00

Source Domain: www.cybersecuritydive.com

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OpenAI is limiting the release of its powerful new GPT-5.6 AI models at the request of the Trump administration.
“We are starting with a limited preview for a small group of trusted partners whose participation has been shared with the government, before releasing more broadly,” OpenAI said in a blog post on Friday.
After OpenAI previewed its GPT-5.6 models — Sol, Terra and Luna — for federal agencies, the government asked the company not to publicly release the tools, OpenAI said.
“We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” the company said in its blog post. “It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them.”

OpenAI vowed to publicly release the new models “in the coming weeks” and said it was temporarily complying with the government’s request “because we believe it is the strongest path to broader availability in the coming weeks.”
The company added that it was working with government agencies on the model-review process that President Donald Trump called for in his recent AI security executive order.
The Trump administration’s request to OpenAI comes after the government ordered Anthropic not to share its powerful models Mythos and Fable with foreign nationals, prompting Anthropic to cut off almost all of its customers’ access to those tools.
The Commerce Department’s export-control restriction on Mythos and Fable capped a dramatic about-face inside the Trump administration over how to handle AI. Trump officials and advisers spent 2025 arguing that the government shouldn’t regulate AI, saying that doing so would give China an advantage in the competition to develop the cutting-edge technology. But Mythos’s debut in April changed the White House’s calculus and kicked off a significantly more restrictive approach.
The OpenAI situation is notable because the company is complying with a government request rather than following a legally binding order. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees on Thursday that the Trump administration would be “approving access customer by customer during this preview period,” The Information reported.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment about why it complied with the government’s request.
On the same day that OpenAI revealed its voluntary cooperation, Anthropic announced that the government had allowed it to resume offering Mythos to “certain trusted partners.”