Experts in the artificial intelligence industry have accused DeepSeek of copying OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
In an interview, David Sacks, an AI expert discussed whether DeepSeek employed an AI technique known as “distillation” to extract knowledge from OpenAI’s models.
“There’s a technique in AI called distillation. The student model asks the parent model a lot of questions, just like a human would learn. But AIs can do this by asking millions of questions and essentially mimicking the reasoning process they learn from the parent model,” he explained.
He further suggested that DeepSeek might have employed this strategy, saying, “There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models. And I don’t think OpenAI is very happy about this.”
DeepSeek’s technological advancements have sparked debates over efficiency, intellectual property, and the global AI race.
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As concerns about intellectual property and AI security rise, AI companies are expected to take proactive measures to prevent such knowledge transfer.
“One of the things you’re going to see over the next few months is our leading AI companies taking steps to try and prevent distillation,” the AI expert warned.
“If they can prevent distillation by third-party companies, that would definitely slow down some of these copycat models,” he added.
The Chinese AI firm has reportedly developed methods to optimise chip performance, allowing them to achieve more with limited hardware resources. This innovation stems from necessity due to export restrictions that have limited China’s access to high-end chips.
“DeepSeek has managed to get more efficiency out of chips. They’re squeezing more juice out of the chips, and they have to because of the export controls,” Sacks explained.
“Necessity has been the mother of invention for them.” While DeepSeek’s efficiency strategies have been acknowledged, experts argue that large-scale computing power remains a key advantage in AI development.
“There are still great advantages to having a lot of chips, an enormous number of chips. And I think that this is an area where America can continue to lead,” another analyst stated.