OpenAI says Chinese firms like Deepseek try to copy U.S. AI tech

OpenAI warns of Chinese companies reverse engineering AI models, sparking tensions over intellectual property protection.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI on Wednesday (January 29, 2025) said that Chinese companies are actively attempting to replicate its advanced AI models, prompting increased security measures and closer cooperation with U.S. authorities.

OpenAI's statement came after Chinese startup DeepSeek sparked panic on Wall Street this week with its powerful new chatbot developed at a fraction of the cost of its U.S. competitors.

DeepSeek's performance has sparked a wave of accusations that it has reverse engineered the capabilities of leading U.S. technology, such as the AI powering ChatGPT.

OpenAI said rivals were using a process known as distillation in which developers creating smaller models learn from larger ones by copying their behavior and decision-making patterns, similar to a student learning from a teacher.

"We know [China] based companies — and others — are constantly trying to distill the models of leading US AI companies," an OpenAI spokesperson told AFP, highlighting tensions over AI intellectual property protection between the United States and China.

We "believe as we go forward that it is critically important that we are working closely with the U.S. government to best protect the most capable models from efforts by adversaries and competitors to take U.S. technology."

David Sacks, the new Trump administration's AI czar, told Fox News there was "substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI's models."