Trump administration asks OpenAI to limit GPT-5.6 rollout to select partners
The Trump administration has asked OpenAI to distribute its upcoming GPT-5.6 model to select partners only rather than launching publicly, citing safety concerns.
OpenAI plans to share its newest model, GPT-5.6, with a select group of partners instead of releasing it to the broader public. The Trump administration asked the company to slow-roll the launch over safety concerns, marking a rare direct intervention in a major AI lab's release schedule.
The decision represents a shift from OpenAI's recent pattern of wide commercial launches. GPT-4 and its subsequent iterations reached millions of users through ChatGPT and the company's API within days of announcement. A limited partner rollout would keep GPT-5.6's capabilities under tighter control during an initial evaluation period, allowing the company and government observers to assess risks before broader deployment.
No timeline for a broader release has been announced, and the White House has not publicly detailed which safety issues prompted the request.
