OpenAI has quietly dismantled one of the last barriers separating ordinary users from its most capable free AI, releasing GPT-5.6 Luna as the default model for unpaid accounts and lifting the ceiling on text conversations entirely. The move reflects a broader philosophical wager: that abundance, not scarcity, is the more durable path to relevance in an increasingly crowded field. Where the company once rationed access to steer people toward paid tiers, it now bets that a more capable, more available free tool will expand the human relationship with AI rather than simply redistribute it. The ri