OpenAI chief Sam Altman on Friday said his high-profile artificial intelligence company is "on the wrong side of history" when it comes to being open about how its technology works.

Altman's comments came during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit where he fielded questions including whether he would consider publishing OpenAI research.

Altman replied he was in favor of the idea and that it is a topic of discussion inside San Francisco-based OpenAI.

"I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy," Altman said.

"Not everyone at OpenAI shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority."

Chinese AI newcomer DeepSeek has made headlines for its R1 chatbot's supposed low cost and high performance, but also its claim to be a public-spirited "open-source" project in contrast to closed alternatives from OpenAI and Google.

Open source refers to the practice of programmers revealing the source code of their software, rather than just the "compiled" program ready to run on a computer.

This has clashed with private companies' pursuit of revenue and intellectual property protection.

Meta, DeepSeek and France-based AI developer Mistral claim to set themselves apart by allowing developers free access to their tools' inner workings.

A member of the Reddit group asked Altman whether DeepSeek has changed his plans for future OpenAI models.

"It's a very good model," Altman said of DeepSeek.

"We will produce better models, but we will maintain less of a lead than we did in previous years."

AFP

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, pictured here during a visit to the White House on January 21, 2025, says he expects his company's artificial intelligence models to stay ahead of China-based DeepSeek but for the lead to narrow © Andrew Harnik / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

OpenAI chief says it needs new open-source strategy