The San Francisco start-up claims that its Chinese rival may have used data generated by OpenAI technologies to build new systems.
OpenAI says it is reviewing evidence that the Chinese start-up DeepSeek broke its terms of service by harvesting large amounts of data from its A.I technologies.
The San Francisco-based start-up, which is now valued at $157 billion, said that DeepSeek may have used data generated by OpenAI technologies to teach similar skills to its own systems.
This process, called distillation, is common across the A.I. field. But OpenAI’s terms of service say that the company does not allow anyone to use data generated by its systems to build technologies that compete in the same market.
“We know that groups in the P.R.C. are actively working to use methods, including what’s known as distillation, to replicate advanced U.S. A.I. models,” OpenAI spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois said in statement emailed to The New York Times, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models, and will share information as we know more,” she said. “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 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DeepSeek spooked Silicon Valley tech companies and sent the U.S. financial markets into a tailspin earlier this week after releasing A.I. technologies that matched the performance of anything else on the market.