OpenAI will initially release ChatGPT 5.6 only to government-approved customers

According to a report in The Information, OpenAI plans to release its new ChatGPT 5.6 model in stages, with the first users being only those approved by the federal government. Sources told the publication that, per a staff memo from CEO Sam Altman, federal leaders will be “approving access customer by customer during this preview period,” followed by a general release of the 5.6 model “a couple of weeks later.”

“We’ve made clear to the US government that this is not our preferred long term model, and will work with them and others in industry to achieve a more sustainable approach for future releases,” Altman reportedly told employees. Several agencies are involved in directing the change from OpenAI. The Information cited interactions with the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, as well as involvement from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Representatives from the White House and the Office of the National Cyber Director did not respond to requests for comment. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month asking AI companies to participate in a voluntary federal review of their more powerful models before public release. The government is expected to create a framework to standardize how it assesses new models.

Shortly after, OpenAI rival Anthropic disabled access to two of its recent models following a federal directive. That order did not specify security concerns, only that the government wanted to block access to Anthropic's tools for any foreign nationals. Between that incident and OpenAI’s staged rollout, there remains confusion about how the review process will work and how voluntary it truly is.