ChatGPT-Maker Takes Probe Against Chinese Rival to US Government

• OpenAI’s investigation into Chinese rival DeepSeek has now involved U.S. government officials.
• The ChatGPT-maker has accused DeepSeek of training its model off ‘distilled’ data belonging to OpenAI.
• DeepSeek has caused shockwaves through the U.S. since its launch.

OpenAI has taken its controversial investigation into rival Chinese AI firm DeepSeek to the U.S. government, an executive has confirmed.

The ChatGPT-maker previously accused the open-source firm of training its AI models with obtained data from OpenAI.

Investigation Put In Front of U.S. Government

On Monday, Feb. 10, OpenAI’s Chris Lehane told Bloomberg TV the company had talked with U.S. government officials about its investigation.

“We’ve seen some evidence, and we’re continuing to review it,” Lehane said.

Some have criticized the investigation, believing OpenAI is acting hypocritically due to the numerous lawsuits about how they train their systems.

Lehane said this situation was inherently different, likening OpenAI’s training methods to checking out a book from a library.

Lehane explained that an unauthorized method would be more likened to taking a book from the library, changing the cover and author, and selling it.

“That’s replication, and that’s what we’re concerned about,” Lehane said at the Paris AI Summit on Monday. “Like there’s good calories and bad calories, there’s good distillation and problematic distillation,” he added.

OpenAI’s Claims Against DeepSeek

OpenAI’s investigation into DeepSeek came after an initial show of praise from CEO Sam Altman.

Following DeepSeek’s launch, which rapidly rocked the U.S. tech market, Altman said it was “legitimately invigorating to have a new competitor.”

However, a few days later, the U.S. AI firm said it had some evidence of “distillation” from Chinese companies.

Distillation is a technique where a smaller model is trained to replicate the behavior of a larger, more advanced model by learning from its outputs.

While distillation is a common practice in AI development, OpenAI’s terms of service prohibit using their model outputs to create competing technologies.

“We know that groups in [China] are actively working to use methods, including what’s known as distillation, to try to replicate advanced U.S. AI models,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

“We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models and will share information as we know more,” the spokesperson added. “We take aggressive, proactive countermeasures to protect our technology and will continue working closely with the U.S. government to protect the most capable models being built here.”

DeepSeek Success

The probe follows the runaway success of China’s newest AI export in the U.S.

After DeepSeek raced to the top of the U.S. Apple app store charts, reports of the AI model’s apparent cheap development cast doubt over America’s leading U.S. firms.

ChatGPT, for example, is estimated to cost OpenAI around $700,000 daily to run, but in 2025, a single query can now cost $1,000, according to research firm SemiAnalysis.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. AI firm is in talks to raise a new round of funding to double its valuation to $340 billion.

These billions of dollars of investments underscore the heavy capital requirements behind building and running advanced AI models like ChatGPT.