OpenAI

Apple Sues OpenAI and Two Former Employees Over Alleged Hardware Trade-Secret Theft

Apple filed suit in Northern California federal court on July 10-11 against OpenAI and two former Apple employees, alleging a coordinated scheme to steal hardware trade secrets tied to OpenAI's io Products consumer-hardware venture (co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive). The complaint alleges OpenAI's hardware chief Tang Tan — a former Apple VP — coached departing Apple staff on evading security processes, and that job candidates were told to bring 'actual parts' from Apple to interviews; Apple says over 400 former employees now work at OpenAI. OpenAI says it has 'no interest in other companies' trade secrets.'

OpenAI Makes GPT-5.6 Generally Available to All Users

OpenAI made the GPT-5.6 family — Sol, Terra, and Luna — generally available across ChatGPT, Codex, and the API on July 9, ending a two-week limited preview that began June 26 under a government-coordinated review. Pricing is $5/$30 (Sol), $2.50/$15 (Terra), and $1/$6 (Luna) per million input/output tokens; it is the first time since the June 12 Fable 5 export-control episode that every major US frontier lab has a publicly available flagship model simultaneously.

Future of Life Institute's Summer 2026 AI Safety Index: Top Grade Is a C+

The Future of Life Institute published its Summer 2026 AI Safety Index on July 7, grading nine leading AI companies across 37 indicators in six domains on evidence collected through June 3. Anthropic took the top overall grade at C+ (2.66), leading five of six domains; OpenAI followed at C (2.28) and Google DeepMind at C (2.01); Meta landed at D+, with xAI, DeepSeek, and Mistral receiving failing grades. Reviewers noted that several labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Meta, have weakened or eliminated earlier commitments to pause development if systems approached specified danger thresholds.

White House in Advanced Talks With OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic on Voluntary Frontier Standards

Reports on July 3 said the White House is in advanced talks with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to finalize a voluntary standards framework for frontier AI model releases, covering benchmarks, testing timelines, and access rules. The framework is widely seen as the gating event for OpenAI expanding GPT-5.6 beyond its roughly 20 government-vetted partner organizations.

OpenAI Previews GPT-5.6 Family: Sol, Terra, and Luna

OpenAI began a limited preview of the GPT-5.6 series — Sol (flagship), Terra (balanced everyday model), and Luna (fast and affordable) — advancing the frontier on software engineering, computer use, professional knowledge work, scientific research, and cybersecurity. API pricing per 1M tokens is $5/$30 (input/output) for Sol, $2.50/$15 for Terra, and $1/$6 for Luna; during the preview the models are available via the OpenAI API and Codex to a limited group of trusted partners, with general availability planned in the coming weeks. The GPT-5.6 Preview System Card was published June 25.

OpenAI Limits GPT-5.6 to 'Trusted Partners' at US Government Request

OpenAI said it complied with a US government request to initially restrict access to its new GPT-5.6 models (Sol, Terra, Luna) to a small group of trusted partners while a federal safety-assessment framework is developed. OpenAI said it is working with the administration on a 'repeatable process for future model releases' but publicly cautioned that such government access processes should not become the long-term default, arguing they keep the best tools from developers and enterprises.