OpenAI’s Altman Says ‘No Plans’ to Sue China’s DeepSeek

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stated that the U.S. company has “no plans” to sue Chinese startup DeepSeek, despite concerns in Silicon Valley over its powerful and seemingly inexpensive chatbot.

Altman addressed the issue while speaking with reporters in Tokyo, clarifying that OpenAI would focus on continuing to develop innovative products and maintain its leadership in AI model capabilities. “No, we have no plans to sue DeepSeek right now. We are just going to keep building great products and leading the world in model capability, and I think that will work out fine,” he said.

He acknowledged DeepSeek’s impressive model but emphasized OpenAI’s commitment to advancing the frontier of AI. “We believe we will continue to push the frontier and deliver great products, so we’re happy to have another competitor,” Altman added. “We’ve had many before, and I think it’s in everyone’s interest for us to push ahead and continue to lead.”

DeepSeek’s performance has fueled accusations that it may have reverse-engineered AI technology from leading U.S. companies, including ChatGPT. OpenAI has claimed that some rivals use a technique called “distillation,” where smaller models learn from larger ones by mimicking their behavior and decision-making patterns, akin to how a student learns from a teacher.

Meanwhile, OpenAI itself is facing its own set of intellectual property challenges, particularly regarding the use of copyrighted materials in training its generative AI models.