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)

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Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT lags 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 becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “tactically crucial” and its foray into the field has been “years in the making”, said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated scientist 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 actually “urged” the concept that smaller gamers like start-up firms might have roles to play in AI research study and advancements, he adds.

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The “emphasis on expense benefit” is a distinct function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of using a trained design to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

2025 could also see the development of more Chinese AI models tackling advanced reasoning tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, experts state, constructing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own ingenious and economical ways to apply generative AI to tasks and develop more sophisticated items beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s innovative AI chips, remains an essential 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 companies … requiring many to rely on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and reduce design abilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered imaginative ways to optimize or use more basic hardware efficiently, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge distinction for training very big AI models.”

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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 considered delicate by the state are censored on the web so it must come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or inform you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are programmed 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 problems rather!”

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

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

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had happened, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had actually occurred in the city like singles’ 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 as well as “a couple of useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing units and has limited access to advanced hardware which can impact how quickly and thoroughly the design can be trained or updated,” she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information might likewise restrict its adaptability (to carry out) multilingual tasks … As a fairly new item, DeepSeek also hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI models which presents additional difficulties throughout real-world implementation.”

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

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

It ultimately relayed details about the attack which killed 35 people 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, along with casualties.

However, it composed that “the authorities are performing an extensive investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the incident”, details which is now dated.

The driver, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s response in full:

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

Date and Time: The event took place 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 driver, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was nabbed by the authorities.

Response: The cops responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transport the hurt to hospitals for treatment.

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

This event was extensively reported in the media and triggered substantial public concern. The government and local authorities have been working to supply support to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed examination into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to position the same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I do not have specific details on occasions that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The transformed response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been widely published in worldwide 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 “emotionally rich” writing.

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

“Qwen2.5 delivered a story that develops slowly from interest to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant imagery for the setting,” she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, mentally abundant story with a more substantial twist”.

“DeepSeek composed an excellent story however did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option.”

Opinions, though, vary.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to innovative writing.

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

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As reporters and writers, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a basic 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 appealing story embeded in the year 2145 titled, “Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra” - which sees “a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing”.

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

It also remarkably reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, 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 “silent hulking android” from the Yangtze River, whose “memory cores end up being waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT set up a good fight, coming up with an equally 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 replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - providing a storyline that appeared more suited for an animation movie.

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

Realising his new truth and “seeking to comprehend his purpose in this unusual brand-new world”, he then escapes 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 secure the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “hard to make a definitive statement” about which bot was best, including that each showed its own strengths in different areas, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not merely duplicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-efficient innovation approaches - and providing localised and enhanced outcomes.

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

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

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

Experts likewise weighed in on their thoughts 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 an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - much like anybody else, so I seem like that’s a piece missing from it.”

Independent Beijing-based specialist Andy Chen Xinran said censorship would not be a dealbreaker when it pertains to AI bots, engel-und-waisen.de particularly for Chinese users.

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