Trump administration asks OpenAI to limit release of GPT-5.6: Report

The Trump administration has asked OpenAI to limit the release of its next large language model, GPT-5.6, citing security concerns, according to a report by Axios.

Per the report, the White House's Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy requested that the model be released first to a small set of government-approved partners rather than the general public.

This is part of the administration's broader effort to build a framework for testing and monitoring new AI models and their security.


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Sources cited in the report said this is the first time the US government has asked an AI company to restrict a model’s launch before it has happened.

This also comes close on the heels of the government asking Anthropic to suspend access to its powerful Mythos and Fable 5 models for non-US citizens.

According to The Information, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees in a memo that the company has clarified to the government that such intervention is not desirable for the long term, andit will work with relevant stakeholders for a more sustainable approach for future releases.

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This move by the government came due to the model's Mythos-like abilities, Axios said. It also follows an executive order on AI security that President Donald Trump signed earlier in June, which directs agencies to set up a voluntary pre-release testing protocol.

Anthropic's suspension of the models has thrown up a lot of questions around the high global dependence on a handful of AI companies. Experts in India have called for the development of sovereign models, ET reported on June 26, noting that such restrictions expose a vulnerability in India’s AI ambitions.

As access to frontier AI increasingly becomes a geopolitical issue, experts argue India will need significantly greater investments in research, compute infrastructure, and domestic AI capabilities if it wants a meaningful role in shaping the next phase of the global AI race.