White House Pushes New Gatekeeping Role For Frontier AI Model Access
CNBC reported that the Trump administration is pressing deeper into access decisions for frontier AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic, while a White House official said release timing and scope remain company decisions.
The Trump administration is pressing for a larger role in deciding which organizations receive the newest frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic, according to two people cited by CNBC.
A White House official disputed that the government approves private releases, stating that model timing and scope remain company decisions and that testing and government engagement are voluntary.
Frontier Model Access Moves Towards Government Review
OpenAI and Anthropic previously decided which companies and agencies could use their most powerful models, often including major enterprise customers.
Under the newer process described by sources familiar with the matter, future rollouts would require explicit government approval for which partners can be involved.
Anthropic's Project Glasswing provided a limited set of partners access to its Mythos cybersecurity model.
Reports indicate that OpenAI was asked by the administration to restrict GPT-5.6 access, and the company also has Daybreak, a consortium for a cybersecurity model.
The White House official rejected the notion that the administration provides release approvals.
Decisions on timing and scope rest with the companies, the official said, while the administration collaborates with frontier labs to strengthen technology security.
Mythos And Fable Access Returned After Negotiations
Reports indicate that the Trump administration blocked Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5 last month on national-security grounds.
Access was reinstated after weeks of negotiations with Anthropic.
OpenAI stated last month that new models would be limited to trusted partners as part of government-request compliance.
These steps leave company-led initiatives such as Project Glasswing and OpenAI's Daybreak facing uncertainty over future access decisions.
This week, the administration launched Gold Eagle, a program meant to work with the private sector on identifying and addressing cyber vulnerabilities.
A person familiar with the matter described the clearinghouse as a mechanism for the White House to greenlight which companies can receive access to new AI models.
Chinese Open-Weight Model Adds Policy Pressure
The access debate is unfolding as cheaper open-weight models from China narrow the gap with US frontier labs.
Moonshot AI unveiled Kimi K3 on Friday, describing the model as largely catching up with the performance of Fable and GPT-5.6.
David Sacks, founder of Craft Ventures and former White House AI czar, expressed concern over the Kimi development.
He noted that the rest of the world would not adhere to US rules if American companies were hindered by domestic restrictions.
The administration's June executive order had already requested companies to provide the government early model access for testing on a voluntary basis.
No final Gold Eagle rule or written order transferring model-access decisions from companies to the White House was established.
