White House asked OpenAI to delay GPT-5.6 release — two weeks after Anthropic

OpenAI has developed new GPT-5.6 models, but users won't have access to them yet. According to Wired, the White House requested the company to postpone the public release. This request marks the second such case in two weeks — Anthropic found itself in an analogous situation two weeks earlier.

What Happened with OpenAI

OpenAI completed development of the next generation of language models branded as GPT-5.6. The company was preparing for their public launch, but the Trump administration intervened in the process: OpenAI received a request to hold off on the release. Neither the White House nor the company provided public explanations — neither about the reasons for the delay nor about its expected timeline. For developers and corporate clients building products on top of OpenAI's API, this creates direct uncertainty: when exactly new capabilities will become available remains unknown. Planning product roadmaps under such conditions is substantially more difficult.

Anthropic Faced This Earlier

The GPT-5.6 story occurred against the backdrop of an equally revealing precedent. Two weeks earlier, Anthropic was forced to remove its most advanced AI models from public access. Official explanations were not forthcoming again — users and developers learned of the restrictions after the fact. Two events over such a short period — this is already a pattern, not a coincidence:

• The US government has begun treating advanced AI models as strategic assets requiring state control
• The mechanism of influence remains informal: not laws and public regulations, but direct requests to specific companies
• Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic disclosed the nature of the requests received or the decision-making criteria
• Developers learn about restrictions after the fact, without advance notice
• A precedent is being created without broad public discussion or legislative formalization

Regulation Without Public Rules

The European AI Act builds regulation on transparent and predictable requirements: companies know in advance exactly what they need to comply with for a model to be released to market. The American approach, evident in these two cases, is fundamentally different. Instead of clear public criteria — informal negotiations behind closed doors.

For businesses dependent on APIs from leading AI companies, this creates difficult-to-predict risk: the release date of the next model is now determined not only by technical readiness, but also by the White House's position. And yet American companies — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind — maintain global leadership in developing the most powerful language models. Systematic delays in their release could weaken the competitive position of the US, especially compared to Chinese AI developers actively supported by their government.

What This Means

Not long ago, technology companies themselves determined the pace of model releases — without regard for regulators. Now the White House is intervening in this process: still informally, without public rules or transparent criteria. Two cases in two weeks suggest that these are not isolated incidents, but the beginning of a new stage in the relationship between the American government and the AI industry.