- OpenAI announces three new AI models in the GPT-5.6 series
- The flagship Sol model is accompanied by Terra and Luna
- Access is currently restricted in accordance with requests from the US government
OpenAI has announced new GPT-5.6 model upgrades for ChatGPT, though so far they’re only available to a select group of “trusted partnerships and organizations” — a restriction requested by the US government that OpenAI doesn’t seem to be too happy about.
“We do not believe that this kind of public access process should become the long-term standard,” OpenAI’s announcement explains. “It keeps the best tools from the users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders and global partners who need them.”
There are three models in the series: Sol (the flagship), Terra (for “everyday work”) and Luna (the smallest, fastest and cheapest of the three). OpenAI says the model’s performance is “competitive” with GPT-5.5, with improvements in affordability, security, agent properties, coding, biology, and cybersecurity.
Sol is the best model to date for deep thinking and complex agent work, OpenAI claims, and it apparently matches the Anthropic Mythos model for cybersecurity tasks while using a third of the output tokens.
There will be more security tests
Preview of GPT-5.6 Sol: a next generation model from r/singularity
All three models set a new standard for security measures and protection against “resistance pressure,” according to OpenAI’s announcement. They should be resistant to attempts to hide intent from users and to jailbreak the model.
Those who have access to the GPT-5.6 models may encounter some seemingly unnecessary blocks and restrictions, OpenAI explains, while the safety and security of the AI upgrades are tested. Finally, feedback from early testers should make these upgrades more robust, ready for a full release.
We’ll hopefully get that release “in the coming weeks,” OpenAI says. The US government wants to do its own testing and evaluation, and while OpenAI is complying with those requests this time, it clearly doesn’t want this to be the new standard.
The mood from users so far out of the loop seems to be one of resignation. “The days of public access to these frontier models are over,” writes one Redditor, while another says “the divide has begun” between the AI haves and have-nots.
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