San Francisco Frontiers - OpenAI to launch new model after US freeze

The company's new GPT-5.6 offerings and other cutting-edge AI models, including Anthropic's Mythos series, have drawn concern over their supposedly unprecedented ability to identify weaknesses in code that hackers can exploit.

That has raised national security fears, and OpenAI said in late June it had shared preview access to GPT-5.6 with a limited group of trusted US-based partners at Washington's request.

Large language models are the technology that underpins chatbots and many other AI tools, with their capacity to crunch through colossal amounts of digital data.

The GPT-5.6 series has three tiers: Sol, the company's new flagship model; Terra, a mid-range version for everyday work; and Luna, a fast, low-cost option.

"GPT-5.6 Sol, along with Terra and Luna, will launch publicly this Thursday. We're expanding preview access globally now," OpenAI said in an X post Tuesday, without giving further details.

US news outlet Axios reported, citing a source familiar with the situation, that the Trump administration had given the company the green light for a broad launch of GPT-5.6, following technical testing and meetings between the company and government officials.

AFP has contacted OpenAI, the White House and the US Department of Commerce for comment on the Axios report.

It follows a similar story at OpenAI's archrival Anthropic, the startup behind the Claude chatbot.

Last week, Anthropic said it would begin restoring access to its most powerful AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, after Washington lifted a restriction on where they could be released.

Before Mythos's arrival, President Donald Trump's administration wanted fewer rules on AI companies, not more, hoping that would help the US beat China in the AI race.

The government is now drawing up criteria for which AI models would fall under new security restrictions, in accordance with an executive order from the White House.

OpenAI said in June that "we don't believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default" as it "keeps the best tools" from users, businesses and others who need them.

The company added that it was working with Washington "to develop the cyber Executive Order framework and a repeatable process for future model releases."

Once broadly available, Terra will be priced at half the cost of its predecessor GPT-5.5, OpenAI has said, as it seeks to lock in customers amid fierce competition from Anthropic and Google.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have filed confidential IPO documents with US regulators and are targeting public listings at valuations approaching $1 trillion, raising the commercial stakes of the AI arms race between them.

N.Flores--SFF