White House Urges OpenAI to Limit GPT-5.6 Launch

The White House wants OpenAI to limit the launch of its next model. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, reportedly told staff the new model, GPT 5.6, will launch differently than previous ones. The government will approve access "customer by customer." This means the release will first go to a select group of close partners. A broader launch could follow a "couple of weeks" later. GPT 5.6 is described as a "meaningful improvement" over GPT 5.5, with better context window size and efficiency. Altman also noted that GPT 5.6 is not the company's preferred long-term model, and they aim for a more sustainable approach with future releases. This shows a new level of government involvement in AI model rollouts.