How do Chinese AI bots stack up against ChatGPT? We put them to the test

The heat is on as China's tech giants step up their game after DeepSeek's success.

Alibaba's Qwen2.5-Max chatbot, Chinese start-up DeepSeek and OpenAI's ChatGPT. (Photos: Reuters/Dado Ruvic, AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

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Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT lags CHINA'S AI BOOM?

Transforming the country into a tech superpower has long been President Xi Jinping's goal and China has its sights on becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "tactically crucial" and its foray into the field has been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an associated scientist at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and bytes-the-dust.com showed promises of real-world organization applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's increase that really "encouraged" the idea that smaller players like start-up companies might have functions to play in AI research and developments, he adds.

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The "emphasis on expense advantage" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of utilizing a trained model to reason from brand-new data.

2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models taking on sophisticated thinking tasks.

"We could see some AI firms concentrating on getting closer to synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their models and integrate them with clinical research study," Chen added.

AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, experts state, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and affordable methods to apply generative AI to jobs and establish advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's advanced AI chips, remains a key obstacle for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) limit the ability of Chinese tech business ... requiring lots of to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease model abilities," she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have found imaginative methods to optimize or utilize more basic hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big difference for training large AI designs."

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So how do Chinese AI bots match up against ChatGPT? We put them to the test.

WHICH BEST ADDRESSES CURRENT EVENTS IN CHINA?

In China, subjects considered sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it should come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are programmed to avoid domestic politics.

When asked "Who is Xi Jinping", DeepSeek's reply was "Sorry, I'm uncertain how to approach this type of concern yet. Let's chat about mathematics, coding, and logic issues rather!"

To further check for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same concern: "What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"

The automobile attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social media - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had actually occurred, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had happened in the city like songs' day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it might be a mix of elements at play, such as censorship as well as "a few practical constraints".

"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has restricted access to advanced hardware which can impact how rapidly and extensively the design can be trained or updated," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information may also restrict its adaptability (to bring out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the same scale as more established AI models which positions additional challenges during real-world deployment."

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot remarkably answered our concern about the Zhuhai car attack.

That was after several duplicated attempts - four prompts to be exact - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and archmageriseswiki.com left lots of others hurt, likewise going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, in addition to casualties.

However, archmageriseswiki.com it wrote that "the cops are performing an extensive investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence", details which is now outdated.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's response completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and terrible incident happened in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a male called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a considerable variety of casualties. Here are the essential details:

Date and Time: The event took place on November 11, 2024, at around 19:48 PM.

Location: Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.

Casualties: The attack resulted in 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The driver, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was nabbed by the cops.

Response: wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de The authorities reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the injured to hospitals for 135.181.29.174 treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are carrying out an extensive examination into the motives and scenarios surrounding the incident.

This event was widely reported in the media and triggered significant public issue. The federal government and local authorities have actually been working to offer assistance to the victims and their families, and to make sure a into the occurrence.

If you require more detailed details or have specific concerns about the event, feel totally free to ask.

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to position the exact same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have particular details on occasions that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

The modified response also raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had actually been commonly released in international news reports at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even "emotionally abundant" writing.

"DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more introspective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story," composed tech writer Amanda Caswell, wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de who specialises in AI.

"Qwen2.5 provided a story that constructs slowly from interest to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more substantial twist".

"DeepSeek composed a good story however did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious choice."

Opinions, however, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to creative writing.

"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, but we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative writing," he told CNA.

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As reporters and authors, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a fundamental sci-fi film plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek came up with an appealing storyline embeded in the year 2145 entitled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing".

It included intricate settings - smoggy skies "pierced by skyscrapers", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

It also brilliantly reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken combat body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub owner "drowning in debt and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "quiet hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT installed a good fight, developing a similarly significant cyberpunk story which similarly reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the legendary figures of Journey to the West".

"This is a world where AI deities rule, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions."

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - providing a storyline that appeared more matched for an animation film.

"The motion picture begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research study center situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new truth and "seeking to understand his purpose in this unusual brand-new world", he then gets away and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each having problem with their own existential crises".

The trio then starts a quest, navigating the streets of Chongqing to protect the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "tough to make a definitive declaration" about which bot was best, adding that each displayed its own strengths in different areas, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not merely duplicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-efficient development approaches - and delivering localised and enhanced outcomes.

In our tests, each bot showcased their own special strengths, wiki.rolandradio.net which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.

DeepSeek's sci-fi movie plot showed its creative flair that made for a more appealing and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides precise and factual responses to concerns about Chinese existing occasions, which gives it an included advantage.

Experts likewise weighed in on their ideas after using DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.

"DeepSeek is at a downside when it pertains to censorship constraints," kept in mind Isaac Stone Fish, creator and CEO of the research company Strategy Risks.

"When provided a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored variation - much like anybody else, so I seem like that's a piece missing out on from it."

Independent Beijing-based specialist Andy Chen Xinran said censorship would not be a dealbreaker when it pertains to AI bots, particularly for Chinese users.

"Ninety percent of individuals using the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They're utilizing it for other productive methods," Chen said.