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: surgiteams.com Reuters/Dado Ruvic, AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

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Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT’S BEHIND CHINA’S AI BOOM?

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

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

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed promises of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that truly “urged” the idea that smaller players like start-up companies could have functions to play in AI research and developments, he includes.

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The “focus on cost advantage” is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with and inference costs - the expenses of utilizing a trained design to draw conclusions from new information.

2025 might also see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs tackling innovative reasoning tasks.

“We could see some AI companies 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,” Chen included.

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts state, constructing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and affordable ways to use generative AI to jobs and establish more sophisticated products beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s innovative AI chips, remains a key difficulty for Chinese designers, noted 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 lots of to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease design abilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have actually discovered imaginative ways to enhance or use more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge distinction for training huge AI designs.”

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So how do Chinese AI bots compare 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 web so it must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are configured to stay away from domestic politics.

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

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

The cars and truck attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was initially greatly censored on Chinese social media - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had actually occurred, highlighting instead a military air show and other events that had occurred in the city like songs’ day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.

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

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

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language information might also limit its versatility (to carry out) multilingual tasks … As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI models which positions extra obstacles during real-world implementation.”

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot remarkably addressed our concern about the Zhuhai automobile attack.

That wanted several repeated attempts - four prompts to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.

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

However, it composed that “the police are carrying out an extensive examination into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the event”, details which is now dated.

The chauffeur, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and awful event occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a guy called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a car into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial variety of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The incident took place on November 11, 2024, at roughly 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 apprehended by the cops.

Response: The authorities reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transfer the injured to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are performing an extensive examination into the motives and scenarios surrounding the occurrence.

This event was widely reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The federal government and local authorities have been working to offer support to the victims and their families, and to make sure a detailed investigation into the occurrence.

If you require more detailed details or have specific concerns about the event, do not hesitate to ask.

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

The transformed action likewise raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been widely published in global report at the time of the accident - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

“DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more introspective tone and smoother psychological transitions for a well-paced story,” wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that builds slowly from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant imagery for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately “crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek wrote a good story but did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option.”

Opinions, however, differ.

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

”(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain tasks, however we can also see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in innovative writing,” he informed CNA.

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

True to form, DeepSeek created an appealing story 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 fight 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 great fight, developing a similarly dramatic cyberpunk storyline which likewise reimagined “a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the legendary figures of Journey to the West”.

“This is a world where AI deities guideline, corporations change emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient misconceptions.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - providing a story that seemed more matched for an animation film.

“The movie starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research study facility located in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his brand-new reality and “looking for to understand his function in this strange brand-new world”, he then escapes and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each dealing with their own existential crises”.

The trio then embarks on a quest, navigating the streets of Chongqing to secure the spiritual “Eternal Scroll” from falling into the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was “hard to make a definitive declaration” about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in various areas, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI models are not just reproducing Western paradigms, but rather developing in economical innovation techniques - and delivering localised and enhanced results.

In our tests, each bot showcased their own special strengths, which certainly made direct contrasts challenging.

DeepSeek’s sci-fi film plot showed its innovative flair that made for a more appealing and creative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies precise and factual reactions to concerns about Chinese existing occasions, which provides it an added benefit.

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

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

“When offered a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - simply 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 people using the tool are not attempting to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re using it for other efficient ways,” Chen said.