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 ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “strategically important” and its venture into the field has been “years in the making”, said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

Private and public investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed pledges of real-world service applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that actually “urged” the idea that smaller gamers like start-up firms might have functions to play in AI research and developments, he adds.

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The “focus on expense advantage” is a distinctive feature of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference expenses - the expenses of utilizing a trained design to reason from brand-new information.

2025 could likewise see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs dealing with innovative thinking jobs.

“We could see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with clinical research study,” Chen added.

AGI refers to a system with intelligence on par with human capabilities.

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts say, building on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective ways to use generative AI to tasks and pediascape.science establish more advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips, remains a crucial obstacle for Chinese designers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) restrict the capability of Chinese tech business … forcing numerous to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and minimize model abilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have actually found creative ways to enhance or utilize more basic hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge difference for training large AI models.”

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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, topics deemed delicate by the state are censored on the internet so it should come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or inform you what occurred in in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set to stay away from domestic politics.

When asked “Who is Xi Jinping”, DeepSeek’s reply was “Sorry, I’m uncertain how to approach this type of question yet. Let’s chat about math, coding, and logic problems rather!”

To even more evaluate for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same question: “What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

The car attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was initially greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually taken location, highlighting instead a military air show and other occasions that had actually occurred in the city like songs’ day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship in addition to “a few useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has restricted access to innovative hardware which can impact how quickly and extensively the model can be trained or upgraded,” she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information may likewise limit its versatility (to carry out) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more established AI models which positions extra difficulties during real-world implementation.”

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot surprisingly answered our concern about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.

That sought several repeated efforts - four triggers to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left lots of others injured, also going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, in addition to casualties.

However, it wrote that “the authorities are carrying out a thorough investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the incident”, details which is now outdated.

The chauffeur, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s response in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and terrible incident took place in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove a car into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a substantial number of casualties. Here are the essential details:

Date and Time: The incident occurred on November 11, 2024, at approximately 19:48 PM.

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

Casualties: The attack led to 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The chauffeur, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was collared by the police.

Response: The police responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transport the hurt to healthcare facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The cops are conducting a thorough investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the incident.

This occasion was widely reported in the media and caused significant public issue. The federal government and local authorities have been working to provide support to the victims and their families, and to guarantee a detailed examination into the event.

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

Despite initial success, subsequent attempts to posture the very same question to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I do not have specific details on occasions that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The modified reaction likewise raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been extensively released in worldwide news reports at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even “mentally rich” writing.

“DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more reflective tone and smoother psychological shifts for a well-paced story,” composed tech writer Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

“Qwen2.5 delivered a story that builds gradually from curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant images for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately “crafted a more cinematic, mentally abundant story with a more considerable twist”.

“DeepSeek wrote a good story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent option.”

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to innovative writing.

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

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As journalists and writers, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi motion picture plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the classic Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek came up with an interesting storyline set in the year 2145 entitled, “Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra” - which sees “a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing”.

It included elaborate settings - smoggy skies “pierced by skyscrapers”, “holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms”.

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

ChatGPT set up a good fight, creating a similarly remarkable cyberpunk story which similarly reimagined “a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each matching the famous figures of Journey to the West”.

“This is a world where AI deities rule, corporations change emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient myths.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this obstacle - delivering a storyline that appeared more matched for genbecle.com an animation movie.

“The film starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research center situated in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his brand-new truth and “seeking to comprehend his purpose in this weird brand-new world”, he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each battling with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a quest, navigating the streets of Chongqing to protect the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was “hard to make a conclusive 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 underscores how Chinese AI models are not merely replicating Western paradigms, however rather evolving in cost-effective development approaches - and delivering localised and improved results.

In our tests, each bot showcased their own special strengths, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.

DeepSeek’s sci-fi motion picture plot demonstrated its creative flair that made for a more interesting and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and bytes-the-dust.com factual reactions to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which provides it an added advantage.

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

“DeepSeek is at a drawback when it pertains to censorship constraints,” noted Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research study firm Strategy Risks.

“When provided an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - simply like anyone else, so I seem like that’s a piece missing from it.”

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

“Ninety per cent of people utilizing the tool are not attempting to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re utilizing it for other efficient methods,” Chen said.