--- title: "OpenAI Hit With Wave of Mockery for Crying That Someone Stole Its Work Without Permission to Build a Competing Product" description: "ChatGPT maker OpenAI has become the subject of widespread mockery after whining that DeepSeek stole its intellectual property." date: "2025-01-29" modified: "2025-01-29" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/openai-mockery-stole-work-deepseek" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "chatgpt" - "deepseek" - "OpenAI" --- # OpenAI Hit With Wave of Mockery for Crying That Someone Stole Its Work Without Permission to Build a Competing Product ![ChatGPT maker OpenAI has become the subject of widespread mockery after whining that DeepSeek stole its intellectual property.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ChatGPT maker OpenAI has become the subject of widespread mockery online after [whining that buzzy Chinese AI startup DeepSeek]() stole its intellectual property — despite indiscriminately ripping off other people's work itself for many years. The Sam Altman-led company [told the *Financial Times*]() that it had "some evidence" of DeepSeek stealing its intellectual property, training its AI models on the output of OpenAI's models. DeepSeek [threw Silicon Valley into complete chaos]() earlier this week, [wiping out over $1 trillion]() worth of market capitalization in a single day. Its R1 model impressed with a performance that can rival OpenAI's most sophisticated models while using a tiny fraction of the resources. The glaring hypocrisy of OpenAI ripping off human creatives and then accusing DeepSeek of vacuuming up its work to build a better product didn't go unnoticed. "I'm so sorry I can't stop laughing," AI critic Ed Zitron wrote in a scathing [post](). "OpenAI, the company built on stealing literally the entire internet, is crying because DeepSeek may have trained on the outputs from ChatGPT." "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha," *404 Media*'s Jason Koebler [wrote]() in a post about the situation. "The irony here is palpable," another user [wrote](). "You can't steal from us!" one user [joked](). "We stole it fair and square!" Other users pointed out that despite having the word "open" in its company name, OpenAI is a closed-source, for-profit entity. Meanwhile, DeepSeek's AI models actually *are* open source. "Unlike OpenAI, DeepSeek is open AI," one X-formerly-Twitter user [wrote](). OpenAI's whining didn't muster much sympathy. "If you steal all the art in the whole world to make tech that lies and can't do arithmetic, and someone steals your tech and then gives that tech out for free while you're still charging $200/mo for it, well, maybe you're not the actual victim here," one Bluesky user [argued](). It remains to be seen whether OpenAI has much of a case. "DeepSeek may well have broken OpenAI’s Terms of Service and distilled their intellectual property without permission," AI critic Gary Marcus [tweeted](). "OpenAI may well have done analogous things to YouTube, *New York Times*, and [countless artists and writers]()." Marcus was referring to the [*New York Times*' lawsuit against OpenAI]() over copyright infringement and the [strong possibility]() that the firm trained its models by stealing videos from YouTube, which also [happens to be against *its* terms of service](). "Karma is a bitch," he added. OpenAI has [maintained]() that ripping off copyrighted material to train its AI models falls under fair use, a United States copyright law doctrine permitting the unlicensed use of protected works. Altman has also [openly admitted]() that there would be no OpenAI if it didn't rip off copyrighted materials. But now that DeepSeek has allegedly run afoul of its terms of service by employing the same playbook, OpenAI's position highlights a glaring double standard. Meanwhile, Altman [has beat the war drum](), [arguing]() that "we will obviously deliver much better models" than DeepSeek without elaborating further. Instead of focusing on beating DeepSeek when it comes to cost efficiency, however, Altman is doubling down, arguing that OpenAI is still hellbent on delivering "more compute." **More on DeepSeek:** *[Another Chinese AI Company Says It's Beaten OpenAI]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()