Ep 808: OpenAI’s limited release of GPT-5.6, Mythos starts slow reinstatement, OpenAI gets spicy and more AI news

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is the Everyday AI Show, the Everyday Podcast where we simplify AI and bring its power to your fingertips. Listen daily for practical advice to boost your career, business, and everyday life.

**Jordan Wilson** (0:16)
This June was supposed to be the start of Hot AI Summer. That's because earlier this month, Anthropic released its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models to the general public, and we were supposed to have an avalanche of other frontier models released to all. Google was slated to release Gemini 3.5 Pro, and OpenAI was on board to drop Gpt 5.6 all this month. And although we technically did kind of get the GPT 5 release from OpenAI late Friday, it's not exactly the Hot AI Summer we were promised. That's because Anthropic's heavy capabilities, and the typings of Mythos caused the US. Government to step in. And now we're at the end of June with no general availability to the promised frontier models from any of the big three companies. Although we do have some updated news because Mythos 5 and the new Gpt 5.6 have started to roll out, but only if you work at a select few companies. So that's the big AI news of the week, but there's a lot more that we're going to get you caught up on. So if you don't have hours every single day trying to understand what's happening in the AI world and how it impacts your business, don't worry. That's what I do every single day. And then on Monday we bring you the AI news that matters. So let's get into it. If you're new here, welcome. My name is Jordan Wilson, and this is Everyday AI.
It's a daily live stream podcast and free daily news that are helping everyday business leaders like you and me, not just keep up, but how we can use all of this information hidden between the headlines to get ahead and grow our companies and careers. So it starts here with the unedited, unscripted live stream podcast, but please make sure if you haven't already subscribed to the podcast on Apple podcasts and Spotify, and then go to your everydayai.com. We're going to be recapping all of the highlights from today's show, as well as all of the other AI developments you need to know to make good decisions for your company. And yeah, there's going to be a lot new, I'm guessing, updates from today with the updates to the Anthropic, Mythos release, then pull back, then re-release. And now we have GPT 5.6 and three new variations. So let's start there, shall we? Because we do have a new leading model from OpenAI, but unfortunately, it looks like hardly anyone has access to it. So OpenAI says it is limiting its early access to its newest GPT 5.6 models, to a small group of trusted testers after requests from the US. Government, raising new questions about how much control Washington should have over advanced AI releases. So OpenAI says the first preview of GPT 5.6 is restricted to partners whose participation has been shared with the US. Government, rather than their normal kind of release cycle of just opening it up to millions of users right away. So aside from this kind of newish way to roll out models, which is just going to selected few, OpenAI also has a new naming scheme. So here we go. We have Sol, which OpenAI calls its flagship and most powerful model. Then we have Terra, a more balanced version for everyday use. Then we have Luna, which is a faster, lower cost option. So similar to the older Anthropic three-tier naming capabilities, it looks like that's what we're going to have from OpenAI moving on. So what that means is, well, you have your sun, your earth, and your moon in that order. So Sol is the big heavy model.
Then you have Terra, which is the in-between or the old sonnet from Anthropic, or your use of that naming mechanism. And then you have Luna, right? Our moon. That's the faster, lower cost option. So yeah, think of your globe, you know, sun, earth, moon. Yeah, we're going to have to start memorizing these things. So OpenAI says also that Sol adds a max reasoning mode and an ultra mode that uses coordinated sub-agents for very complex tasks, especially in coding, biology and cybersecurity. So the company says GPT 5.6 Sol is slightly better at coding workflows than Anthropics, Claude, Mythos 5, while using about one third of the output tokens. That is the big news there. So we don't have full benchmarks on the new GPT 5.6 Sol, but it looks like from what OpenAI shared, it does look like it's in the Mythos and Fable range on some benchmarks. On some benchmarks, Anthropic is ahead. So we'll see when it comes to third-party analysis, like artificial analysis or the LM or formerly LM Arena. So we'll see where it clocks in, but it looks like it's probably a little bit below kind of true Mythos level. So maybe it's more in the Fable 5 area, which is Mythos without all or with that is Mythos with guardrails. So yeah, it's super confusing now, right? Because three weeks ago, we didn't have Mythos and Fable and Sol and Terra and Luna, right? So now we have not only this new tier of maybe AI not being truly democratized anymore, and it's going to be, you know, who knows if the general public will ever get access to Mythos. Maybe it'll just be a limited availability with Fable and seems like there's some rumor circulating that, you know, in the future, you might actually have to show US citizenship to use some of these models. So we'll see where the US government lands with that, but it is going to be one of the hottest topics. But regardless, it looks like a very promising release from OpenAI.