OpenAI will publicly launch its most capable model, GPT-5.6, on Thursday, after delaying the launch last month on the US government’s request amid national security concerns that powerful AI systems could be misused.
This comes on the heels of the US government lifting curbs on Anthropic’s latest Fable and Mythos AI models last week, less than three weeks after the company was ordered to suspend their access over national security risks.
Washington has increased scrutiny of advanced AI model releases to identify potential threats on concerns that the technology could be misused by military or intelligence in China, Russia or other countries of concern.
Axios, which broke the news on the OpenAI launch, reported citing a source familiar with the matter, that the US Department of Commerce had approved a broad launch of GPT-5.6, following additional government testing under Washington’s new oversight framework for frontier AI.
OpenAI had limited the model’s access to a small group of vetted partners whose details were shared with the authorities.
