US tech giant OpenAI, on Monday, introduced a new ChatGPT tool called “Deep Research,” designed to generate detailed reports by analyzing vast online sources.
The announcement comes as China’s DeepSeek chatbot gains traction, intensifying competition in the artificial intelligence industry.
Speaking in Tokyo, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also highlighted a new joint venture with Japanese tech investor SoftBank Group aimed at delivering advanced AI services to businesses.
DeepSeek’s rapid rise has sent ripples through Silicon Valley, with analysts touting its high performance and affordability as a challenge to US AI developers.
Meanwhile, OpenAI emphasized that its new tool significantly reduces research time.
“You give it a prompt, and ChatGPT will find, analyze, and synthesize hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst,” the company stated.
Altman, addressing users on social media platform X, acknowledged that Deep Research requires significant computing power and is relatively slow but remains optimistic about its impact.
“My very approximate vibe is that it can do a single-digit percentage of all economically valuable tasks in the world, which is a wild milestone,” he wrote.
Entrepreneur Michel Levy Provencal weighed in, suggesting the tool could pose “very big problems ahead for consultants.”
At a Tokyo business forum, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son announced a joint venture with OpenAI, with both firms holding equal stakes.
The initiative aims to deploy OpenAI’s AI solutions across SoftBank’s businesses, backed by an annual $3 billion investment.
“We want to create the cutting-edge AI infrastructure—the world’s biggest, cutting-edge AI data centers,” Son stated after a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“Cristal”, which is designed to analyze system data, reports, emails, and meetings to optimize business operations.
DeepSeek’s emergence has sparked concerns that it may have reverse-engineered the capabilities of leading US AI models, including those powering ChatGPT.
OpenAI recently warned that Chinese companies are actively trying to replicate its advanced AI, leading to closer collaboration with US authorities.
However, when asked about potential legal action, Altman dismissed any immediate concerns.
“We have no plans to sue DeepSeek right now,” he said.
“DeepSeek is certainly an impressive model, but we believe we will continue to push the frontier and deliver great products, so we’re happy to have another competitor,” he continued.
OpenAI claims some rival companies are using a technique known as “distillation”, where smaller AI models mimic the behavior of larger, more advanced models—akin to a student learning from a teacher.
While OpenAI faces ongoing legal challenges related to its own AI training methods, Altman’s next steps remain unconfirmed.
Reports suggest he will travel to Seoul, where South Korean tech giant Kakao is set to announce a “collaboration with OpenAI” on Tuesday.
