OpenAI is examining whether Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek improperly obtained data from its models to build a popular new AI assistant, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. The ChatGPT maker said it is “reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled” its models.

OpenAI believes DeepSeek used a process called “distillation,” which helps make smaller AI models perform better by learning from larger ones.

As per the report, in late 2024, security researchers at Microsoft discovered a significant amount of data had been leaked from OpenAI developer accounts. Microsoft suspects these accounts are linked to DeepSeek.