Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Japan, CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI has no plans to sue DeepSeek “right now.” Instead, the company continues to develop its products and lead the world with advanced AI models.

He considered DeepSeek an impressive model, but believes OpenAI will take things even further and deliver better products. "We're glad to have another competitor," he said.

sam altman epa-efe
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participated in the "Transforming Businesses Through AI" event with SoftBank in Tokyo on February 3rd. Photo: EPA-EFE

In early 2025, DeepSeek stunned the global tech world with two open-source models, possessing capabilities comparable to their Western counterparts but with supposedly much lower development costs.

The startup also sparked controversy with accusations of "copying" from AI models such as those of OpenAI.

According to the developers of ChatGPT, their competitors are using a "distillation" process, where smaller models learn from larger models through mimicking behavior and decision-making patterns, similar to how students learn from teachers.

However, OpenAI itself also faces other allegations related to intellectual property infringement, primarily due to the use of copyrighted content when training its generative AI models.

In an interview with the Financial Times, OpenAI stated that there is some evidence of alleged "distillation" from DeepSeek. DeepSeek's use of this process to create competitors to ChatGPT violated OpenAI's terms of service.

David Sacks, US President Donald Trump's AI and cryptocurrency advisor, also suggested that intellectual property theft "possibly" occurred.

On social media platform X, he commented that DeepSeek R1 "shows that the AI ​​race will be very competitive" and that he "has faith in America but we cannot be complacent."

(According to SCMP)