Trump’s AI power grab

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is putting itself in charge of rolling out a new ChatGPT model. What’s happening? On Friday, ChatGPT maker OpenAI announced plans to launch several new AI models, including one called GPT-5.6 Sol, “in the coming weeks.” But at the request of the Trump administration, 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 its most powerful yet. What’s the context? This is the second big AI move the Trump administration has made recently. Earlier in June, it essentially banned Anthropic’s powerful new “frontier” AI model shortly after the company released it. That model — originally called “Mythos” and released publicly in a more limited version called “Fable” — may have had a significant security flaw (how serious is a little unclear; my colleague Eric Levitz explains more here). But there’s also good reason to think the ban could stem from the administration’s animus against Anthropic. Why does this matter? As Eric writes, there’s a good case that the federal government should get more involved in AI regulation. And it makes sense to be cautious about frontier models, which are powerful and potentially dangerous. But what the Trump administration is doing isn’t regulation in any traditional sense — there’s no clear process or universally applied standard at play. Instead, the administration seems to be making it up as it goes along — and, in the process, giving itself serious leverage over both AI companies and the firms hoping to use these new tools. And with that, it’s time to log off… Hi readers, I hope you’ve been enjoying our little World Cup pop-up feature in this section of the newsletter (fear not — it will continue). But if you’re not quite all-in, allow my colleague Alex Abad-Santos to make the case for why this summer is the perfect time to get into sports. You can read his article here with a gift link. (And just pretend there’s also a lengthy section in there from me about the Tour de France.) Now, a World Cup thing: the story of Iran’s star goalkeeper, who will play tonight in Seattle. Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!