David Sacks, the AI and cryptocurrency advisor under former President Trump, stated in a Fox News interview on Tuesday that there is considerable evidence indicating that the Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has utilized insights and knowledge derived from OpenAI’s AI models.
Sacks remarked, “There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled knowledge out of OpenAI models, and I don’t think OpenAI is very happy about this.” However, he did not present any concrete evidence to substantiate his claims.
He elaborated on a method known as distillation, in which one AI model leverages the outputs of another to enhance its training and develop comparable capabilities. Sacks asserted that the creators of DeepSeek employed this distillation technique to train their chatbot.
In December 2024, President Donald Trump appointed Sacks as the White House AI and cryptocurrency czar, assigning him the responsibility of advising on matters related to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies.
Recently, DeepSeek introduced an open-source AI model named R1, which aims to replicate human reasoning. The company asserts that R1 either matches or exceeds the performance of leading US AI models on critical benchmarks, all while being developed at a significantly lower cost. Following its launch, DeepSeek became the most downloaded application on the Apple Store, gaining traction among American users.
Despite claims that the new AI model delivers superior results at a reduced cost, skepticism persists within the technology sector regarding the methods employed by DeepSeek to develop its technology.
The launch of DeepSeek’s model triggered turmoil in the US markets, leading to notable fluctuations in Nvidia’s stock on Monday. Nevertheless, the stock showed signs of recovery on Tuesday.
