AI labs released major models in 2026, with OpenAI and Meta both shipping new systems on July 9, 2026. OpenAI released the GPT-5.6 family, including Sol, a new flagship model; Terra, built for everyday use; and Luna, the economical choice. OpenAI stated Sol beat Fable 5 in adaptive and medium reasoning on UC Berkeley's Agents Last Exam benchmark, and that Terra and Luna "outperform Fable 5 at around one-sixteenth the cost." The model family is about on par with Fable 5 in most major performance areas, including coding, work tasks, and general applications, but is still faster and cheaper, according to OpenAI. The government was involved in the timing of GPT-5.6's release, signifying a shift around an informal partnership between labs and the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAIS), set in motion by the voluntary testing agreement in the Trump administration's June executive order. Meta released Muse Spark 1.1, an upgrade to its first model from April, which scored above Anthropic's Opus 4.8 and OpenAI's GPT-5.5 for job tasks humans delegate to AI and financial analysis.