“Sam Altman still got a call from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week cautioning against a release without getting clearance”
Sounds very voluntary!
A recap of our reporting yesterday:
- OpenAI is doing a staggered release of its new model GPT 5.6 because, as Sam Altman explained to staff this week, the government asked it to do so - OpenAI had been working with the government since before the Anthropic blowup to preview its new model - Despite sharing OpenAI's plan with agencies and top officials, Sam Altman still got a call from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week cautioning against a release without getting clearance, highlighting the confusion in the administration over who is handling the process - When Trump signed the long-awaited executive order in early June, the administration promised a voluntary process - The EO stated that the framework for companies to share their models with the government pre-release would be worked out in 60 days - The Office of the National Cyber Director hosted its first feedback session with industry on June 9, the same day that Anthropic released Fable and just a few days before the White House imposed export controls on Anthropic - Anthropic was not invited to the session - One of the issues that came up was whether the framework would have exemptions for open-source models, as Chinese open-source rapidly catches up with the leading U.S. models - The process of creating the voluntary framework has been on hold amid as the White House holds meetings with Anthropic to reach an accord about the export controls. Meanwhile, policy experts warn that the administration has created a de facto licensing regime in its place
