This story appeared in The Logoffa daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news rule your life. Register here.
Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is putting itself in charge of launching a new format for ChatGPT.
What is happening? On Friday, ChatGPT developer OpenAI announced plans to launch new AI models, including one called GPT-5.6 Sol, “in the coming weeks.” But at the Trump administration’s request, not everyone will get access at first: Instead, the government will get to sign off on which companies can use the new model, which OpenAI said is the most powerful yet.
What is the context? This is the second major AI move the Trump administration has made recently. In early June, it essentially banned Anthropic’s new “frontier” AI model shortly after the company released it.
That model — previously called “Mythos” and released publicly in a more limited edition called “Myth” — may have a serious security flaw (how much is unclear; my colleague Eric Levitz explains more. here) But there is also good reason to think that the ban may be due to the administration animation vs. Anthropic.
Why this matter? As Eric writesthere is a good case that the federal government should be more involved in AI regulation. And it is logical to be careful about examples of limits, which are strong and risk potential. But what the Trump administration does is not regulation in any traditional sense — there is no clear process or universally applicable standard.
Instead, the administration appears to be making it up as it goes along — and, in the process, giving itself significant leverage over both AI companies and companies hoping to use these new tools.
And so, it’s time to leave…
Hello readers, I hope you’ve been enjoying our little World Cup pop-up feature in this section of the magazine (fear not – it’s to be continued). But if you’re not quite a fan, let my colleague Alex Abad-Santos make the case for me why this summer is a good time to get into sports. You can read his article here and a giveaway link. (And pretend there’s also a long section from me about the Tour de France.)
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!
