OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna Launch Publicly After Government Review
OpenAI
OpenAI's GPT-5.6 model family — Sol (flagship), Terra (balanced, half the cost of GPT-5.5), and Luna (lowest cost) — became publicly available on July 9 after a government-gated limited preview since late June. The delay was due to a voluntary 30-day review under a Trump administration AI cybersecurity order; the Department of Commerce cleared the models for broad release. Sol achieves 91.9% on Terminal-Bench 2.1 and is launching on Cerebras at up to 750 tokens per second.
Why it matters
GPT-5.6 Sol is OpenAI's strongest model to date and marks the first time a frontier AI series went through a formal government safety review before public release — a precedent for how future powerful models might be regulated.
Importance: 5/5
OpenAI flagship release; first frontier model to go through a formal US government safety review before public launch.