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 video game after DeepSeek’s success.

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

This audio is created by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT’S BEHIND CHINA’S AI BOOM?

Transforming the nation into a tech superpower has actually 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 crucial” and its foray into the field has actually 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 financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed pledges of real-world organization applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that really “encouraged” the idea that smaller sized players like start-up companies could have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he adds.

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The “focus on cost benefit” is a distinctive feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of utilizing a trained design to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models tackling sophisticated reasoning tasks.

“We might see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways 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 companies are moving quickly, analysts say, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-effective methods to apply generative AI to jobs and develop more advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, remains an essential difficulty for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) restrict the ability of Chinese tech companies … forcing lots of to rely on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and lower design capabilities,” she said.

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually discovered imaginative methods to optimize or use more basic hardware efficiently, obtaining advanced 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, topics deemed sensitive by the state are on the internet so it ought to come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend 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 concern yet. Let’s chat about mathematics, coding, and reasoning problems instead!”

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

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

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

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship along with “a couple of practical constraints”.

“DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has actually restricted access to advanced hardware which can affect how quickly and thoroughly the model can be trained or updated,” she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language data may also limit its versatility (to bring out) multilingual tasks … As a fairly new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI designs which poses additional challenges during real-world release.”

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

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

It eventually relayed details about the attack which killed 35 people and left dozens of others hurt, 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 composed that “the authorities are conducting a comprehensive investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the incident”, details which is now dated.

The chauffeur, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s response in full:

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

Date and Time: The event happened 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, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the authorities.

Response: The cops responded rapidly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the injured to health centers for treatment.

Investigation: The police are conducting a thorough examination into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the occurrence.

This event was extensively reported in the media and triggered substantial public concern. The federal government and local authorities have actually been working to supply assistance to the victims and their households, and to make sure a detailed investigation into the incident.

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

Despite initial success, subsequent efforts to pose 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 altered action likewise raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been commonly released in international report at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

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

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops gradually from curiosity to urgency, 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, mentally abundant story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek wrote a good story however lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice.”

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative 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 creative writing,” he informed CNA.

Related:

China’s brand-new face of AI: Who is DeepSeek creator Liang Wenfeng?

‘Made in China’: Pride, pleasant surprise from Chinese netizens as DeepSeek jolts global AI scene

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