OpenAI to publicly release GPT-5.6 AI models, ending government

OpenAI said it will publicly release its GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna models on Thursday, roughly two weeks after the artificial intelligence company limited the rollout to a "small group of trusted partners" at the request of the U.S. government.

"Happy building," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a post on X late Tuesday.

OpenAI announced the models in June, and it initially agreed to release them to a select group of organizations whose "participation has been shared with the government," according to a blog post. The company said it believes in "broad access," and that it would work to make the models more widely available over the coming weeks.

"We don't believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default," OpenAI said at the time. "It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them."

The public launch of the GPT-5.6 models comes after OpenAI's chief rival, Anthropic, restored access to its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models following a weeks-long clash with the government. Anthropic had to disable access to the models to comply with an export control directive, which the U.S. Department of Commerce lifted late last month.

The Trump administration has taken a more active role in AI deployments since President Donald Trump signed an AI executive order in June. The order asks AI model developers to voluntarily provide cutting-edge models to the government to assess their capabilities ahead of a full release, and it gave federal agencies 60 days to develop an evaluation process.

OpenAI said in June that it's working with the government to help establish a framework for such assessments and to develop a "repeatable process for future model releases."

The company said that GPT-5.6 Sol is its "strongest model yet," according to a blog post, and that it is more capable across coding, biology and cybersecurity.

OpenAI said in a post on X late Tuesday that it is expanding preview access to the GPT-5.6 models globally.

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