According to media reports, Sam Altman stated in an internal staff meeting that the U.S. government has requested the company to initially release its upcoming GPT-5.6 model to a select group of trusted partners before a broader rollout. Altman emphasized that employees must comply with the government's directives even if the company holds differing views. This development comes less than two weeks after Anthropic was compelled to take down its advanced AI models under government pressure.

The Trump administration is extending its intent to regulate cutting-edge AI models from Anthropic to OpenAI, signaling a further escalation in the U.S. government's intervention concerning top-tier artificial intelligence systems.

As reported by Bloomberg citing informed sources, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees during an internal meeting this Wednesday that the government has instructed the company to restrict the initial launch of GPT-5.6 to a trusted partner group prior to a general release.

In the meeting, Altman stressed that staff must cooperate with any guidance from the Trump administration regarding safety and usage restrictions, regardless of internal disagreements.

According to The Information, Altman informed employees in a Thursday memo that during the GPT-5.6 preview period, the government would approve access "on a customer-by-customer basis." Altman noted in the memo:

"We have made clear to the U.S. government that this is not our preferred long-term model, and we will work with the government and the industry to find a more sustainable solution for future product releases."

This move follows by less than two weeks the forced takedown of two of Anthropic's most advanced AI models due to government pressure. OpenAI employees have reportedly expressed concerns that the government's actions against Anthropic could impact the wider deployment of ChatGPT technology.

Altman's Internal Directive: Compliance First, Despite Disagreements

In the staff meeting, Altman clearly conveyed the government's stance: U.S. authorities are growing increasingly anxious about the capabilities of the latest generation of frontier models. He instructed employees to actively cooperate with government officials on safety and usage restrictions, framing this as an unavoidable compliance obligation.

Earlier this month, the U.S. government, citing national security concerns, required Anthropic to restrict access to its models by foreign nationals both inside and outside the U.S. Anthropic subsequently disabled global access to its two most advanced AI products, Mythos 5 and Fable 5. The company has since been in negotiations with the government seeking to restore access to these models.

Anthropic has publicly stated that the government's order was triggered by the discovery of a potential "jailbreak" vulnerability in its recently released Fable 5 model, which was already restricted from performing cybersecurity-related tasks.

Anthropic has contested this action, arguing that "removing a commercial model already deployed to hundreds of millions of users based on finding a single targeted potential jailbreak is a standard we believe is untenable. If applied uniformly across the industry, this standard would effectively halt new model releases from all frontier model providers."

Regulatory Framework Remains Unclear, Industry Awaits Policy Implementation

Currently, AI labs still rely on ad-hoc, self-developed processes when notifying the government about upcoming powerful model releases. Sources indicate it remains unclear which government department should be notified, when, how much detail should be shared, and how far in advance of a release.

Some industry observers hope an executive order signed by Trump earlier this month will clarify these issues. The order requires the Trump administration to collaborate with AI companies within 60 days of signing to develop a voluntary framework. This framework would include provisions allowing the government pre-release access to so-called "frontier" models up to 30 days before their planned launch.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic are racing to deploy more capable new models across various domains, including programming and cybersecurity. With increasing government intervention, finding a balance between technological advancement and compliance boundaries is becoming a central, unavoidable issue for the entire frontier AI industry.