ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Friday it is restricting the release of its new artificial intelligence model at the request of President Donald Trump’s administration, the latest in an unprecedented government vetting of AI products for cybersecurity risks.
Its chief rival, Anthropic, announced hours later that the Trump administration has approved a limited release of its strongest cybersecurity model, two weeks after the U.S. Commerce Department effectively banned it.
Both companies said their newest models would be available to small groups of trusted partners. OpenAI said its new AI product, called GPT-5.6 Sol, would be accessible only to customers approved by the Trump administration.
“We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” OpenAI said in a statement. The company said it viewed the testing period as a temporary step on the “path to broader availability in the coming weeks.”
OpenAI’s staggered release of a powerful new AI system follows actions the government took earlier this month against Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot. Anthropic took offline two new AI models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, just days after unveiling them to comply with a Trump directive blocking their use by foreign nationals. The government on Friday lifted restrictions on one of those models, Mythos 5, enabling it to be “redeployed to a small group of cyber defenders and infrastructure providers,” Anthropic said.
