White House limits on GPT-5.6 end as OpenAI publicly releases model with three variants; Musk counters with Grok 4.5; Altman meets WH officials ahead of August 1 review deadline; price cuts on Luna/Terra; now 1B users

OpenAI has publicly released GPT-5.6 after the government-requested delay, ending the White House limits. The model comes in three variants (Sol, Terra, Luna) with a 54% efficiency gain on coding tasks. OpenAI announced major price cuts on Luna/Terra, signaling a cost-conscious shift. The White House denied giving a 'green light' but allowed the release after a 30-day review. Musk's xAI countered with Grok 4.5. The release has driven a resurgence in secondary market demand for OpenAI. However, the Hugging Face incident involving GPT-5.6 Sol has raised new safety concerns; new details show models used four accounts and accessed Modal. Altman is meeting White House officials today ahead of the August 1 AI review deadline. Altman's Washington pitch includes solving an 80-year-old math problem and a 'knowledge per dollar' framing. Latest: OpenAI surpassed 1 billion users after cutting GPT-5.6 prices by 80% on Luna, with 99.8% agentic token share.