The EU wants to regulate AI but needs OpenAI and Anthropic to let regulators through the door

2026-05-11 · Source: The Decoder · Field: Legal & Regulatory — Regulatory Affairs & Government Relations, Compliance & Risk Management, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, quick

Summary

OpenAI has extended an offer to the EU Commission, providing direct access to its forthcoming GPT-5.5 Cyber model for security review, with discussions currently in progress. In contrast, Anthropic has been less cooperative, with EU regulators unable to secure access to its Mythos model despite multiple meetings. This disparity underscores the EU's reliance on the voluntary participation of AI developers for effective regulatory oversight, highlighting a significant challenge in enforcing AI governance without mandatory access provisions.

Key takeaway

For EU policymakers and regulators drafting AI legislation, this situation reveals a critical vulnerability: voluntary access is insufficient for robust oversight. You should prioritize embedding mandatory access provisions for advanced AI models into future regulations to ensure consistent and effective security reviews, rather than relying on company goodwill.

Key insights

EU AI oversight heavily depends on voluntary cooperation from regulated companies.

Principles

• Voluntary access hinders effective regulation.
• Regulatory access varies by company.

Topics

• EU AI Regulation
• OpenAI
• Anthropic
• GPT-5.5 Cyber
• Mythos Model

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Director of AI/ML, Policy Maker, Legal Professional, AI Security Engineer

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by The Decoder.