Sam Altman Unveils OpenAI Modified ChatGPT-5.6 After US Government Testing, Says Process Improved AI Security | Today’s news

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company made “many changes” to its latest AI model during the government’s review process, describing discussions with US officials as collaborative and productive.

Altman told CNBC on Thursday that OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT-5.6 model underwent extensive testing and revisions after meeting with Trump administration officials before a wider rollout.

“We made a lot of changes throughout the process,” Altman said when asked if OpenAI had implemented new safeguards following government feedback.

“So they’d test and find things and we’d say, ‘Okay, great, that’s a problem. We’re going to fix it this way.’ Or we’d say, ‘We think this is actually good behavior.’ So it was a back-and-forth collaboration,” he said, according to the news source.

“Very productive process”

Altman described the review as OpenAI’s first experience with the government’s approval framework for advanced AI models, and said it would likely become smoother over time.

“I thought it was a very productive process. We had a great time working with Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Bessent, Director Karen Cross,” Altman told the media.

“This is the first time we’ve gone through it. So there are things we’ll learn about how to make it better for the next time… I think it’s going to be a much smoother process.”

He also praised the government’s technical expertise in evaluating frontier AI models.

“The government’s engineering capabilities have been impressive to me. People are really doing a good job of testing and red teaming these models. And they really care about getting these models out quickly but with a high level of security,” he said.

Altman added that strong security testing benefits both AI companies and users.

“If you want broad access, which is what we want, and you have powerful models, you really want to be confident in your security claims, because otherwise the world gets very uncomfortable very quickly,” he said, according to news reports.

Businesses are increasingly focused on the cost of AI

Altman also said enterprise customers are becoming much more aware of AI spending and are demanding better value from AI providers.

Asked if the improvements in ChatGPT-5.6 were aimed at reducing customer costs, he said: “Absolutely. Cost and speed. It’s also much faster.”

“Customers clearly, every business is now thinking about the spend and the value they’re getting in exchange for AI, and that’s what we really want to do. We want to be the best, most reliable, most reliable, best ROI partner for businesses,” Altman told CNBC.

Speaking to customers at the Sun Valley conference, Altman said that AI budgets have become a major focus for businesses.

“This is the first year that AI spending is a big topic. And suddenly it’s a very big topic. Everyone’s asking what can we do to help reduce spending or increase value,” he said.

Confident about the future of AI

Altman also looked into OpenAI’s ongoing discussions with the Trump administration for what the company described as a repeatable approval process for future releases of the AI ​​model.

While acknowledging that future assessments may continue, he expressed confidence in the direction of the industry.

“Look, I think artificial intelligence is going to be great. I think there’s been too much talk about all the negative stuff and, you know, most of it hasn’t quite panned out the way our industry has been saying it,” Altman said.

His remarks come as OpenAI expands the availability of ChatGPT-5.6 while working with US regulators to improve security testing and approval procedures for future frontier AI models.