New Delhi, Jan. 31 -- DeepSeek has challenged big tech, proving AI can be efficient without costly graphics processing units (GPUs) or massive data centres. Now Microsoft is probing possible unauthorized access to OpenAI data by a group linked to DeepSeek. Are Chinese AI models just illegal copies?

AI lab DeepSeek shocked big tech by training its open-source R1 model on Nvidia's lower-capability H800 chips for under $6 million-far less than the billions spent on OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called R1 "impressive", while Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei noted its near-frontier performance at low costs. Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger chose R1 over OpenAI for his startup, Gloo. DeepSeek's low-cost, energy-efficient, ...