A new drama is unfolding in the world of generative AI. The American company OpenAI has accused its Chinese competitor DeepSeek of using their models to train its own chatbot. According to Bloomberg reports, DeepSeek released the open R1 model, which caused a stir in the financial markets. Investors began to question the stability of American tech giants, as the Chinese company achieved results that usually require significant resources.
OpenAI’s suspicions arose after it was noticed that some users were exporting large volumes of data from their products. The situation forced OpenAI and its partner Microsoft to launch an investigation. Financial publications report that OpenAI suspects DeepSeek of “distillation”—a process where one AI model learns by querying another. This violates OpenAI’s terms of use.
OpenAI’s suspicions have had serious consequences. Shares of Nvidia, the company that supplies chips for AI model training, suffered the largest single-day drop in history, although they later partially recovered. While global markets stabilized, the situation with DeepSeek continues to raise questions about technological rivalry between the US and China.
The tension is heightened by the fact that DeepSeek gained popularity thanks to its free chat applications. This attracted the attention of US government agencies, which are now closely examining the company’s activities. Even the US Navy has banned the use of DeepSeek’s AI due to potential security and ethical threats.
