by Keith McCammon

Regulatory capture of frontier AI models would be an absolute gift to the ecosystem of companies blessed to use them.

The AI labs are opposed to this today. But it’s interesting to game out how they might reconsider, should they find themselves in a situation where broad B2B adoption isn’t viable.

Here’s Steve Yegge’s prediction from June 18, 2026:

The AI race isn’t going to slow down, and AI will continue to grow exponentially in capability. Unfortunately, most of you aren’t going to see it progress anymore.

I am now in the camp who believe that we are only at most two or three model generations away from AI finally being controlled like nuclear weapons. Only a few will have access to superintelligence above the classes of models we’re seeing this year. As far as I can tell, most Fortune 500 companies will either not have access at all, or it will be tightly controlled for only a small subset of the company. And it will be supervised.

I think those with access to powerful frontier models will sell intelligence like a vending machine: You send them a software spec or a problem to solve, and their models implement it for you, on their servers, with your dollars.

And here’s OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 announcement on June 26, 2026:

We believe in broad access, and we plan to make GPT‑5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna generally available in the coming weeks. As part of our ongoing engagement with the U.S. government, we previewed our plans and the models’ capabilities ahead of today’s launch. At their request, we are starting with a limited preview for a small group of trusted partners whose participation has been shared with the government, before releasing more broadly. During this preview, we will continue testing and coordinating closely with partners as we work toward broader availability. We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default. It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them. We are taking this short-term step because we believe it is the strongest path to broader availability in the coming weeks, while we work with the Administration to develop the cyber Executive Order framework and a repeatable process for future model releases.

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