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 start-up 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 country 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 "tactically essential" and its venture into the field has actually been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, wiki.asexuality.org 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 promises of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's increase that really "encouraged" the idea that smaller gamers like start-up firms could have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.

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The "focus on expense advantage" is a distinctive feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of using a trained design to draw conclusions from new data.

2025 could also see the emergence of more Chinese AI models taking on advanced reasoning tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts say, constructing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective methods to apply generative AI to tasks and develop more advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, remains a crucial difficulty for Chinese designers, 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 business ... requiring lots of to rely on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and minimize design abilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered imaginative ways to optimize or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge 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 delicate by the state are censored on the web so it ought to come as no 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 kind of concern yet. Let's chat about math, coding, and reasoning issues instead!"

To even more evaluate for accuracy 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 at first greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had occurred, highlighting instead a military air program and other occasions that had happened in the city like songs' day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.

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

"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to innovative hardware which can affect how quickly and extensively the model can be trained or updated," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language data may also restrict its adaptability (to perform) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI designs which poses extra obstacles throughout real-world implementation."

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

That sought numerous duplicated attempts - 4 triggers to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left lots of others injured, also going on to list details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, as well as casualties.

However, it wrote that "the police are performing an extensive investigation into the motives and scenarios surrounding the occurrence", details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, wavedream.wiki Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5's action completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and terrible incident occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a male named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a car into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial number of casualties. Here are the essential details:

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

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

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

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

Response: The police responded rapidly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the hurt to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are conducting an extensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence.

This event was widely reported in the media and caused significant public issue. The 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 need more detailed details or have particular questions about the incident, do not hesitate to ask.

Despite initial success, subsequent attempts to pose the exact same concern 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 altered action likewise raised questions about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had been commonly published in worldwide report at the time of the accident - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

"DeepSeek-R1 offered a story with a more introspective 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 urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting," she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally abundant story with a more substantial twist".

"DeepSeek composed a great story but did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice."

Opinions, however, differ.

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

"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, however 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 authors, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi film plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the timeless Chinese impressive, Journey to the West.

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

It consisted of elaborate settings - smoggy skies "pierced by high-rise buildings", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

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

ChatGPT set up a great battle, creating an equally remarkable cyberpunk storyline which similarly reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each matching the legendary 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 challenge - providing a story that seemed more matched for an animation movie.

"The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research study center 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 unusual new world", he then gets away and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each dealing with their own existential crises".

The trio then embarks on a quest, browsing the streets of Chongqing to safeguard the sacred "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was "difficult to make a definitive statement" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in various locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not simply duplicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-efficient development approaches - and larsaluarna.se providing 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 demonstrated its imaginative flair that made for a more engaging and imaginative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides accurate and factual reactions to questions about Chinese current events, which gives it an added benefit.

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

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

"When provided a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - similar to 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, specifically for Chinese users.

"Ninety per cent of people utilizing the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They're using it for other productive means," Chen said.