Trump White House Forces OpenAI to Gate GPT-5.6 Behind Government Sign-Off

The Trump administration has ordered a dramatic new gatekeeping process for OpenAI's latest AI model. The administration asked OpenAI to stagger the release of GPT-5.6 over security concerns, limiting early access to a small group of partners while the federal government approves customers one by one. CEO Sam Altman announced this during an internal Q&A session on Wednesday. The request comes after the administration placed an export control order on Anthropic, leading the company to pull its most advanced models, Mythos and Fable — which raised fears in Washington over their advanced cybersecurity capabilities. OpenAI and the administration view GPT-5.6 as "on par" with Mythos. The push for a phased release came out of talks with the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Even after OpenAI shared its plans for the limited release with senior government officials, Altman received a call from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who warned the company against moving forward without sign-off from more agencies. As it stands, there is no transparent, consistent framework for regulating AI.