David Sacks, known as Trump’s AI and crypto advisor, recently made a bold claim about DeepSeek, a rising Chinese AI company. In an interview on Fox, he said there’s “substantial evidence” that DeepSeek “distilled” knowledge from OpenAI’s models to train its own AI systems. Sacks compared this process to theft, though he didn’t specify where this evidence came from.

“I don’t think OpenAI is very happy about this,” Sacks added. The claim comes as DeepSeek’s AI tools have gained massive attention for their high performance and availability. Over the weekend, its free chat apps even topped the Apple App Store charts.

However, DeepSeek’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed by U.S. officials. Reports suggest the National Security Council is reviewing the implications of the company’s AI tools. The U.S. Navy has already banned the use of DeepSeek’s AI, citing potential security and ethical concerns.

While DeepSeek’s popularity continues to grow, Sacks’ allegations add another layer of scrutiny to the company’s practices. Whether there’s concrete proof of these claims remains to be seen. For now, the debate over AI ethics and intellectual property is heating up.