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)

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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 “strategically important” and its venture into the field has been “years in the making”, said Chen Qiheng, larsaluarna.se 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 removed in 2022 and showed pledges of real-world organization applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that actually “encouraged” the concept that smaller gamers like start-up companies could have functions to play in AI research study and developments, he adds.

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The “emphasis on expense benefit” is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of utilizing a trained design to draw conclusions from new data.

2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models tackling sophisticated thinking jobs.

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

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

Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, experts say, building on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-effective ways to use generative AI to tasks and establish more sophisticated products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, remains an essential hurdle for Chinese developers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, pipewiki.org an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) restrict the ability of Chinese tech business … requiring numerous to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower design capabilities,” she said.

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually discovered creative ways to optimize or utilize more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big difference for training large 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, subjects deemed sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it should come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend 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 type of concern yet. Let’s chat about math, coding, and logic issues instead!”

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

The cars and truck attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just disclosing the death toll a day later.

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

Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of elements at play, yewiki.org such as censorship as well as “a few practical constraints”.

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

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language data may also limit its adaptability (to carry out) multilingual tasks … As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI designs which poses additional obstacles during real-world deployment.”

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

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

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which killed 35 people and left dozens of others hurt, likewise going on to note details like the date and time, archmageriseswiki.com details about the assailant including his name and higgledy-piggledy.xyz age, in addition to casualties.

However, it wrote that “the cops are conducting a thorough examination into the motives and situations surrounding the occurrence”, details which is now obsoleted.

The motorist, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a male called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The incident 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 motorist, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was apprehended by the police.

Response: The police reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transfer the hurt to healthcare facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are performing a comprehensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the event.

This occasion was commonly reported in the media and caused substantial public concern. The federal government and regional authorities have been working to provide assistance to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de subsequent attempts to posture the same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I don’t have particular details on occasions that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The altered action also raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been extensively published in global news reports at the time of the accident - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even “emotionally rich” writing.

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

“Qwen2.5 delivered a story that builds gradually from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant images for the setting,” she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, mentally abundant story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek composed a great story but did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious option.”

Opinions, though, vary.

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

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

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As reporters and writers, we had 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, engel-und-waisen.de featuring main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.

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

It consisted of intricate 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 also brilliantly reimagined conventional 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 Sha Wujing as a “quiet hulking android” from the Yangtze River, whose “memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT put up an excellent fight, coming up with a similarly remarkable cyberpunk story which likewise reimagined “a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each matching the famous 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 difficulty - delivering a storyline that seemed more matched for an animation movie.

“The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research study facility situated in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new truth and “looking for to understand his purpose in this odd new world”, he then gets away and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each dealing with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a quest, browsing the streets of Chongqing to secure the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling into the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was “hard 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 information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not simply reproducing Western paradigms, but rather evolving in economical innovation approaches - 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 motion picture plot demonstrated its creative flair that produced a more interesting and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers precise and accurate reactions to questions about Chinese current events, which gives it an included benefit.

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

“DeepSeek is at a drawback when it pertains to censorship constraints,” noted Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research study company Strategy Risks.

“When given an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - much like anybody else, so I feel like that’s a piece missing out on from it.”

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

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