Sam Altman admits China’s DeepSeek forced OpenAI’s hand on open models: ‘If we didn’t do it…’

OpenAI released its first open-weight models since GPT-2 earlier this month, promising strong real-world performance at low cost. With China’s DeepSeek shaking up the AI industry earlier this year through open-source releases, it became clear why OpenAI didn’t want to be on what CEO Sam Altman called the “wrong side of history.” For the first time since the launch of its GPT-OSS models, Altman has openly acknowledged the “China factor” behind the move.

In an interaction with CNBC, Altman admitted that competition from Chinese open-source…