ChatGPT Maker Suspects China’s Dirt Cheap DeepSeek AI Models Were Built Using OpenAI Data — and the Irony Is Not Lost on the Internet

OpenAI has voiced concerns that China's DeepSeek AI models, known for their low cost, may have been developed using OpenAI's data. This sparked a reaction from Donald Trump, who called DeepSeek a wake-up call for the U.S. tech industry following a significant drop in Nvidia's market value—a loss of nearly $600 billion. The emergence of DeepSeek caused a sharp decline in the stock prices of major AI companies. Nvidia, a key player in GPU technology crucial for AI, experienced the most dramatic fall, with a 16.86% drop—the largest in Wall Street history. Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Dell Technologies also saw substantial losses.

DeepSeek's R1 model, reportedly trained for just $6 million using the open-source DeepSeek-V3, is presented as a significantly cheaper alternative to Western AI models like ChatGPT. While this claim has been disputed, it has raised questions about the billions invested in AI by American tech companies, unsettling investors. DeepSeek's app quickly rose to the top of the U.S. download charts amidst growing discussions about its performance.

Bloomberg reported that OpenAI and Microsoft are investigating whether DeepSeek utilized OpenAI's API to integrate OpenAI's AI models into its own. OpenAI acknowledged that Chinese companies, among others, are actively attempting to leverage leading U.S. AI models, a practice they consider a violation of their terms of service. OpenAI stated they employ countermeasures to protect their intellectual property and are collaborating with the U.S. government to safeguard their technology.

David Sacks, President Trump's AI czar, suggested evidence points to DeepSeek using a technique called distillation—extracting data from larger models—to train its own. He anticipates further steps by leading AI companies to prevent this practice.

The situation highlights a significant irony, given OpenAI itself has faced accusations of using copyrighted material to train ChatGPT. Ed Zitron, a tech PR writer, pointed out this hypocrisy, referencing OpenAI's previous statement that creating AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material is impossible.

OpenAI previously stated to the UK's House of Lords that training large language models without copyrighted material is infeasible due to the breadth of copyright protection. This stance echoes their response to the New York Times' lawsuit alleging unlawful use of its work, where OpenAI defended its actions as "fair use." Similar lawsuits have been filed by authors, including George R. R. Martin, alleging widespread copyright infringement. Adding to the complexity, a 2018 U.S. Copyright Office ruling stated that AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted.