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)

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 objective and China has its sights on becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “tactically essential” 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 financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed promises of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.

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

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The “focus on expense advantage” is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference expenses - the costs of utilizing a trained model to reason from new information.

2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs tackling advanced thinking tasks.

“We might see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their models and incorporate them with clinical research study,” Chen included.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, experts say, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own ingenious and affordable methods to apply generative AI to jobs and establish more sophisticated items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, remains a key obstacle for Chinese designers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, setiathome.berkeley.edu an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) limit the capability of Chinese tech companies … forcing many to depend on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and lower model capabilities,” she said.

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually found creative ways to optimize or use more standard hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big difference for training huge 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, subjects considered delicate by the state are censored on the web so it need to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are configured to avoid 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 precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same concern: “What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

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

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually happened, highlighting rather a military air program and other occasions that had taken place in the city like singles’ day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of elements at play, such as censorship along with “a couple of useful constraints”.

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

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might likewise restrict its adaptability (to carry out) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek also hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI models which positions additional challenges throughout real-world implementation.”

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

That was after multiple repeated attempts - 4 prompts to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left lots of others hurt, also going on to note details like the date and time, systemcheck-wiki.de details about the assailant including his name and age, in addition to casualties.

However, it composed that “the police are conducting a thorough investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event”, details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action completely:

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

Date and Time: The occurrence happened 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 chauffeur, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was nabbed by the cops.

Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the hurt to health centers for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are conducting a comprehensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence.

This occasion was commonly reported in the media and caused considerable public concern. The federal government and local authorities have actually been working to provide assistance to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed examination into the event.

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

Despite initial success, subsequent efforts to posture the exact same question to Qwen2.5 led to 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 response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been extensively published in worldwide news reports 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 larsaluarna.se even “emotionally abundant” writing.

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

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that builds gradually from curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers 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, mentally abundant story with a more considerable twist”.

“DeepSeek composed an excellent story but 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, but we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in imaginative writing,” he informed CNA.

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

True to form, DeepSeek came up with an engaging story embeded 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 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 stolen battle body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar owner “drowning in financial obligation and vices” and Sha Wujing as a “quiet hulking android” from the Yangtze River, pipewiki.org whose “memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT put up a good fight, it-viking.ch creating an equally dramatic cyberpunk story 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 replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient myths.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - delivering a story that appeared more matched for an animation movie.

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

Realising his brand-new reality and “seeking to understand his purpose in this odd new world”, he then leaves and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each struggling with their own existential crises”.

The trio then embarks on a mission, 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 “challenging to make a conclusive statement” about which bot was best, including 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 just reproducing Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-efficient innovation approaches - and providing localised and improved results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers precise and accurate responses to questions about Chinese present occasions, which gives it an included advantage.

Experts also weighed in on their thoughts after utilizing DeepSeek and bytes-the-dust.com other Chinese AI apps.

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

“When given a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored version - much 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, particularly for Chinese users.

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