DeepSeek AI Used US “stolen” Technology, Official Claims

A recent report revealed that OpenAI and Microsoft are investigating the potential illegal use of GPT data to train DeepSeek AI models. Both companies believe this helped the Chinese firm’s very low development cost. It seems that these suspicions reached the ears of the new administration’s cabinet in Washington. Donald Trump’s commerce secretary claimed that DeepSeek used stolen US technology.

According to Microsoft’s investigations, a 2024 large-scale data exfiltration from OpenAI developer accounts was linked to DeepSeek. OpenAI believes that the developers distilled data from the GPT models to integrate it into DeepSeek’s via training. This method could have allowed DeepSeek to save all the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in training by OpenAI. There are no definitive conclusions yet, but the Redmond giant reportedly has evidence that points to this.

Trump’s commerce secretary says DeepSeek AI used stolen US technology

Faced with this situation, Howard Lutnick—Trump’s nominee for US commerce secretary—spoke out harshly against Chinese tech companies. “They stole things, they broke in. They’ve taken our IP,” he told the Senate. “It’s got to end, and I’m going to be rigorous in our pursuit of restrictions and enforcing those restrictions to keep us in the lead, because we must stay in the lead,” he added during his confirmation hearing.

Lutnick also claimed that “the Chinese use our patent office against us. They use our laws.” He stressed the need to attack and end such practices to avoid being at a disadvantage in the industry. The representative also recalled that the US has been successful in creating the “greatest technology” companies in the internet industry and that they should repeat it in the artificial intelligence segment.

According to Lutnick, it is necessary for the US to set “standards that the world meets.” “I think that’s the way we’ll keep our lead. Do it the American way, which we know is the winning way, our allies know is the winning way, and we need to set those standards,” he stated.

Latest developments could change Trump’s perception

Before the controversy arose, Trump had not been too aggressive against DeepSeek. In fact, it could be said that he “praised” the company, saying that its emergence was a “wake-up call” for the local tech industry. However, it’s unclear if he will stick to this stance following Microsoft’s latest discoveries. The new development adds to concerns related to national security and potential risks to privacy