The Trump administration has asked OpenAI to limit the release of its next large language model, GPT-5.6, citing security concerns, according to a report by Axios .
Per the report, the White House's Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy requested that the model be released first to a small set of government-approved partners rather than the general public.
This is part of the administration's broader effort to build a framework for testing and monitoring new AI models and their security.
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Sources cited in the report said this is the first time the US government has asked an AI company to restrict a model’s launch before it has happened.
This also comes close on the heels of the government asking Anthropic to suspend access to its powerful Mythos and Fable 5 models for non-US citizens.
According to The Information , OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees in a memo that the company has clarified to the government that such intervention is not desirable for the long term, andit will work with relevant stakeholders for a more sustainable approach for future releases.
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This move by the government came due to the model's Mythos-like abilities, Axios said. It also follows an executive order on AI security that President Donald Trump signed earlier in June, which directs agencies to set up a voluntary pre-release testing protocol.
Anthropic's suspension of the models has thrown up a lot of questions around the high global dependence on a handful of AI companies. Experts in India have called for the development of sovereign models, ET reported on June 26 , noting that such restrictions expose a vulnerability in India’s AI ambitions.
As access to frontier AI increasingly becomes a geopolitical issue, experts argue India will need significantly greater investments in research, compute infrastructure, and domestic AI capabilities if it wants a meaningful role in shaping the next phase of the global AI race.
