OpenAI claims that Chinese startups are persistently trying to copy the technology of American AI companies. Aligned with that, OpenAI says it and partner Microsoft have been banning accounts suspected of “distilling” its models.

DeepSeek faces allegations of using OpenAI's outputs to train its AI. Explore the legal, ethical and competitive implications of this dispute

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