Wed, 29 Jan 2025

OpenAI says Chinese rivals using its work for their AI apps

ChatGPT maker says it will need extra protection from US government, following emergence of Chinese rival, DeepSeek.

* OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, claims that rivals in China and elsewhere are using their technology without permission.
* DeepSeek, a Chinese app, has emerged as a rival to ChatGPT, apparently at a fraction of the cost, leading to concerns about intellectual property theft.
* US officials, including White House "AI and crypto czar" David Sacks and Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, are expressing concern about the potential theft of AI technology from US companies.
* OpenAI claims that DeepSeek may have used their models without permission, a process called knowledge distillation.
* The US has already taken steps to protect its AI advances, including rules to cut China off from advanced chips and steer investments to the US.
* Some experts question whether DeepSeek truly trained its models from scratch or if it relied on OpenAI's technology.
* The national security implications of DeepSeek's emergence are being considered by the White House.
* The US Navy has banned its members from using DeepSeek due to "potential security and ethical concerns".
* Data safety experts have warned users about the potential risks of using DeepSeek.
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