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

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.

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...