White House directs staged release of new AI models

The White House asked OpenAI to delay a broad rollout of its latest model, GPT-5.6, which will now be released in stages. A similar directive forced Anthropic to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. Mythos is back online on a limited basis after a letter from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that Anthropic's work with the government had yielded significant progress.

Fable 5 could return soon.

Security concerns versus competitive access The actions reflect a split within the pro-AI movement over whether national security concerns outweigh the need to keep U.S. AI companies ahead of Chinese rivals. David Sacks warned that restricting access to America's most advanced AI models risks undercutting the strategy outlined a year ago.

"A year ago, President Trump declared that America was in a global AI race and that the way to win it was to be pro-innovation," Sacks wrote on X. "President Trump was exactly right.

market effects Kevin Bankston, AI governance advisor at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the restrictions amount to a crash of the U.S. AI market. Box CEO Aaron Levie described the change as one of the most important shifts in the AI landscape in the past four years.

Levie noted that competitive pressure between labs has driven rapid progress in model capabilities. Two separate security evaluations show that Chinese AI systems have already caught up to the best U.S. models on cybersecurity. Open-source Chinese model usage has surged in recent weeks amid efforts to minimize AI usage costs.

Chinese models now occupy several top spots on OpenRouter's usage leaderboard.