OpenAI limits new AI models to 'trusted partners' at request of U.S. government

OpenAI on Friday announced three new artificial intelligence models and said it's complying with the U.S. government's request to initially limit the rollout to a "small group of trusted partners."

The company said in a blog post that it "believes in broad access" and is working to make the models — GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna — generally available in the coming weeks. OpenAI said it previewed the models' capabilities and shared its plans with the government ahead of Friday's launch.

"We don't believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default," OpenAI said. "It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them."

OpenAI didn't disclose the names of partners that can use its new models.

The announcement comes two weeks after rival Anthropic announced it had to disable access to two of its latest models in order to comply with an export control directive from the Trump administration. Anthropic is in active negotiations with officials in Washington, D.C., but has not said when it expects its the models to come back online.

The Trump Administration has taken a noticeably more hands-on approach to AI regulation since President Donald Trump signed an AI executive order earlier this month. The order, which was thin on specific details, asked AI developers to voluntarily allow the government to assess model capabilities ahead of a full release.

OpenAI said it's working with the Trump administration to help establish a framework for such assessments and to develop a "repeatable process for future model releases."

"We are taking this short-term step because we believe it is the strongest path to broader availability in the coming weeks," OpenAI said.

GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna are named according to their capability tiers. OpenAI said Sol is its strongest offering yet.

The model shows improvements across coding and biology, and OpenAI said it's the company's most capable model for cybersecurity. The company said it is better at helping users fix vulnerabilities than it is at carrying out end-to-end attacks, and it still doesn't cross into OpenAI's "critical" cybersecurity risk threshold, which is defined as bringing "unprecedented new pathways to severe harm."