Microsoft and OpenAI are investigating whether individuals linked to the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek improperly accessed data from OpenAI’s systems, according to media reports.
Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported on Tuesday that Microsoft’s security team detected unusual activity last fall. Individuals suspected of having ties to DeepSeek allegedly extracted large volumes of data through OpenAI’s API, which allows licensed developers to integrate OpenAI’s AI models into their applications.
As a key investor in OpenAI, Microsoft alerted the company about the potential breach, which may have violated OpenAI’s terms of service or indicated an attempt to bypass data access restrictions, according to the report.
The investigation comes as DeepSeek gains traction in the AI industry, particularly following the release of its open-source model, R1. The company claims R1 rivals or outperforms AI models developed by OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, President Trump’s “AI czar,” David Sacks, stated, “There’s substantial evidence that DeepSeek distilled knowledge out of OpenAI models to develop their own technology.” This refers to the practice of training AI models using outputs from other systems.
Earlier this month, DeepSeek launched R1, an open-source AI model designed to mimic human reasoning. The company asserts that R1 competes with or surpasses US AI models in fields like mathematics and general knowledge, all while being significantly more cost-effective. The perceived threat posed by R1 contributed to a sharp decline in AI-related tech stocks, wiping nearly $1 trillion from market valuations.
