A Chinese humanoid startup flips 'distillation' claim on OpenAI as it releases a new robotics model

The CEO of an Ant-backed humanoid robotics startup has published a letter to OpenAI in Chinese that raises questions about technical and design similarities between the two companies' recent models.

"People often say major tech companies have intelligence networks monitoring the whole internet, this time I believe it, this is a direct distillation of us without any modifications," Guo Renjie, CEO of Suzhou-based JoyIn, said in a public statement Thursday, according to a CNBC translation.

He said the startup had publicly presented its "extraterrestrial visitor" AI model framework in Silicon Valley a few weeks ago, before OpenAI's Chief Scientist published "An Alien Mind" on Sept. 6. Guo questioned similarities in core technological approaches such as "recursive self-improvement" and the use of AI to optimize computing power.

Guo also highlighted similarities in the outer space-inspired design of OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra web page and the website for JoyIn's Aether model that he claimed was released two months ago. He added the startup has started the process of filing a lawsuit.

CNBC was unable to independently verify the claims. Some concepts are existing parts of AI research more broadly, although companies connect and implement them differently. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.