TL;DROpenAI released Sol, its most powerful model, to about 20 government-approved partners under Trump’s AI order.
OpenAI has released GPT-5.6 Sol, its most powerful model, to roughly 20 partners whose names were individually approved by the US government. The release is the first time an American AI company has launched a frontier model under a government-managed access list, a step beyond the voluntary pre-release review framework Trump’s AI executive order established on June 2.
Sol is the most capable model in a new three-tier series that also includes Terra, a mid-range option, and Luna, which is optimized for speed and cost. OpenAI described Sol as excelling at coding, biology, and cybersecurity, and introduced a new “max reasoning effort” mode that gives the model extended time to work through complex problems. The company plans to add an “ultra” mode that splits tasks among multiple sub-agents.
The limited preview follows a direct request from the Trump administration to stagger the release, with the government approving access customer by customer during the preview period, according to Bloomberg. OpenAI said in a blog post that it does not believe “this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” but agreed to participate.
