The ChatGPT maker said that it knows of groups in China actively working to replicate US AI models via distillation and is reviewing whether or not DeepSeek may have distilled its models inappropriately, a spokesperson told Reuters.
Naveen Rao, vice president of AI at San Francisco-based Databricks, which does not use the technique when terms of service prohibit it, said that learning from rivals is “par for the course” in the AI industry. Rao likened this to how automakers will buy and then examine one another’s engines.
“To be completely fair, this happens in every scenario. Competition is a real thing, and when it’s extractable information, you’re going to extract it and try to get a win,” Rao said. “We all try to be good citizens, but we’re all competing at the same time.”