Trump administration requires OpenAI to phase GPT-5.6 release—first to trusted partners, then broader rollout—citing government concerns over frontier model performance.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the Trump administration has required OpenAI to release its upcoming powerful artificial intelligence model in phases. This comes less than two weeks after the company's competitor Anthropic PBC suspended access to its cutting-edge model under regulatory pressure.

The source, who requested anonymity when discussing non-public information, stated that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees on Wednesday that the US government requires the company to first release GPT-5.6 to a small group of trusted partners before rolling it out to a broader user base. According to the source, Altman told employees that the US government is increasingly concerned about the performance of frontier models.