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 produced 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 important” and its foray into the field has been “years in the making”, said Chen Qiheng, an associated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world organization applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that actually “urged” the concept that smaller players like start-up companies could have functions to play in AI research and advancements, he includes.

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The “focus on cost advantage” is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of using a trained design to reason from new data.

2025 might also see the development of more Chinese AI models taking on sophisticated reasoning tasks.

“We might see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with scientific research,” Chen added.

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts say, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-efficient methods to apply generative AI to jobs and establish more innovative items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s innovative AI chips, remains an essential difficulty for 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 … forcing many to rely on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower model capabilities,” she said.

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually found creative methods to enhance or utilize more basic hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big distinction for training really big AI designs.”

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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 should come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are programmed 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 question 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 same concern: “What happened 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 divulging the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had actually happened, highlighting rather a military air program and other occasions that had happened 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 few useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can affect how rapidly and thoroughly the model can be trained or upgraded,” she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might likewise limit its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek also hasn’t yet been checked as broadly or on the same scale as more established AI designs which presents additional obstacles during real-world deployment.”

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

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

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which killed 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 carrying out a thorough examination into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event”, details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action in full:

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

Date and Time: The event occurred 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 driver, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was nabbed by the police.

Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to carry the hurt to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The cops are conducting an extensive investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event.

This occasion was extensively reported in the media and triggered substantial public issue. The government and regional authorities have been working to provide support to the victims and their families, and to make sure a detailed examination into the event.

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

Despite preliminary success, it-viking.ch subsequent attempts to pose the same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I don’t have specific details on occasions that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The modified response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had actually been extensively released in international news reports at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even “emotionally abundant” writing.

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

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that builds gradually from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting,” she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately “crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek wrote a great story but did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent choice.”

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not carry out 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 highly as others in imaginative writing,” he told 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 standard sci-fi motion picture plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

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

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

It also remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken battle body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub owner “drowning in financial obligation and vices” and 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 a similarly significant cyberpunk story which similarly 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 common as ancient myths.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this obstacle - providing a storyline that seemed more matched for an animation movie.

“The motion picture starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art 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 strange brand-new world”, he then escapes and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each fighting with their own existential crises”.

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was “hard to make a definitive 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 merely replicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-effective innovation approaches - and delivering localised and enhanced outcomes.

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

DeepSeek’s sci-fi movie plot demonstrated its innovative flair that produced a more appealing and creative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and factual actions to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which provides it an added benefit.

Experts likewise weighed in on their thoughts after using DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.

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

“When provided an option, Chinese users want the non-censored version - simply like anyone else, so I feel like that’s a piece missing out on from it.”

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

“Ninety percent of individuals using the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They’re using it for other efficient ways,” Chen said.