The US Department of Commerce cleared OpenAI for a broad release of GPT-5.6 this week after additional testing and meetings with officials, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The earlier staggered rollout appears consistent with Executive Order 14409, issued on June 2, which sets out a voluntary prerelease framework for covered frontier AI models.

The framework allows up to 30 days of government access and early releases to trusted partners, and says it does not create mandatory licensing or preclearance.

Commerce’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation was created on June 4, 2025, by rebranding the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Safety Institute.

The center evaluates AI model capabilities and vulnerabilities, and serves as a primary government contact for AI companies.

Anthropic faced a related precedent after Commerce imposed export controls on June 12 that required licenses for exports, reexports, or transfers of Mythos and Fable to foreign persons worldwide.

Those curbs were lifted on July 1 after Anthropic added guardrails that the center tested.

🔗 Source: Axios

Recent OpenAI developments