The US government asks OpenAI to slow its next model’s release
The Trump administration has asked OpenAI to stagger the release of GPT-5.6, requiring customer-by-customer access approval during an initial preview period. The request came from the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, framing the concern as cybersecurity-related. This marks the first time the US government has preemptively asked an American AI company to restrict a model launch before it happens. The move follows a similar government directive that pulled Anthropic's most capable models from the market, signaling Washington is now actively shaping frontier AI release schedules rather than reacting after the fact. The arrangement gives a government agency direct influence over who gets early access to a frontier model, shifting control temporarily from the company to the state.