Last Week in AI · Tuesday, July 7, 2026
OpenAI has launched GPT 5.6, featuring the "Sol" model, with an initial release restricted to approximately 20 government-approved organizations. This marks the first time OpenAI has gated a model's access from the outset. OpenAI claims "Sol" is a competitor to Anthropic's "Mifos" and performs better on the "Terminal benchmark 2.1", though full benchmark details were not released.
“OpenAI launches GPT 5.6 Sol under first ever US government gated AI rollout”
“First, OpenAI has both previewed and launched GPT 5.6. It's a free model suite with Sol being the biggest of them and the most impressive of them. And it has really initially been access restricted to approximately 20 government-improved organizations.”
“This is our Mifos competitor. On terminal bench 2.1, it scores higher.”