OpenAI will publicly release advanced GPT model after government-requested delay

OpenAI will release its most advanced model series, GPT 5.6, to the public Thursday after delaying the public rollout at the request of the Trump administration.

The company announced the move on the social platform X late Tuesday night. CEO Sam Altman added “happy building” in a separate post.

The Hill reached out to OpenAI for further comment.

The decision, first reported by Axios, comes nearly two weeks after OpenAI announced the model series would only be previewed with a group of partners before a public rollout.

The ChatGPT maker opted out of a public release at the time at the behest of the U.S. government, which asked the company to delay the release over cybersecurity concerns. The partners’ participation was also shared with the government, OpenAI said.

OpenAI said at the time said this “kind of government access process” is not a long-term solution as it “keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them.”

In the short term, the company said it is “the strongest path to broader availability in the coming weeks, while we work with the Administration to develop the cyber Executive Order framework and a repeatable process for future model releases.”

As concerns grew earlier this year about the cybersecurity risks of newer AI models, President Trump signed an order last month laying out a voluntary testing process in which AI labs can provide the government with their models up to 30 days ahead of release to test for certain risks.

Axios, citing a source familiar with the situation, reported the green light for OpenAI came after additional government testing and company meetings with government officials.

One of OpenAI’s top competitors, Anthropic, faced a similar situation last month when the Trump administration sent the firm a directive to pull its newest Fable and Mythos models over security concerns.

The export controls were lifted about two weeks later and the models were put back online.

While the Trump administration emphasized the latest executive order would not mandate testing or hold back AI development, some predicted at the time these assurances would not be enough.

The move to delay both OpenAI and Anthropic spurred backlash and confusion from AI policy advocates, who warned the moves signaled the White House was taking an “ad hoc” approach to AI regulation that could hurt innovation and set a dangerous precedent for how much influence the government can have on AI model releases.

OpenAI will publicly release advanced GPT model after government-requested delay

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