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 nation into a tech superpower has 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 "strategically important" and its venture into the field has actually been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an associated scientist 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 pledges of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that really "urged" the idea that smaller sized players like start-up companies could have roles to play in AI research and advancements, he adds.

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The "emphasis on expense advantage" is a distinctive function of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and reasoning costs - the costs of using a trained design to reason from brand-new data.

2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs dealing with sophisticated reasoning jobs.

"We could see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their designs and integrate them with clinical research," Chen added.

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, experts state, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and economical methods to apply generative AI to tasks and develop advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, remains a key difficulty for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) limit the ability of Chinese tech companies ... requiring numerous to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease model capabilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually found imaginative ways to enhance or use more fundamental hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big difference for training huge 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 sensitive by the state are censored on the web so it must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or tell you what took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set to avoid domestic politics.

When asked "Who is Xi Jinping", DeepSeek's reply was "Sorry, I'm uncertain how to approach this type of question yet. Let's chat about math, coding, and logic problems instead!"

To further test for precision 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 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.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had occurred, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had occurred in the city like songs' day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

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

"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can affect how quickly and extensively the design can be trained or updated," she said, wiki.myamens.com pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might also restrict its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI models which presents additional obstacles throughout real-world deployment."

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

That sought multiple repeated efforts - four prompts to be exact - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately relayed details about the attack which killed 35 people and left dozens of others hurt, 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 wrote that "the cops are conducting a thorough investigation into the motives and circumstances surrounding the occurrence", details which is now dated.

The motorist, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's response completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic incident happened in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial variety of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The incident happened 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 chauffeur, wavedream.wiki determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was by the police.

Response: The police reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the hurt to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The police are carrying out a thorough investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the event.

This occasion was commonly reported in the media and triggered significant public concern. The government and local authorities have actually been working to offer support to the victims and their households, and to guarantee a detailed investigation into the event.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to pose the exact same question to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have particular details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

The transformed action likewise raised questions about its consistency and reliability.

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

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

"DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more introspective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story," wrote tech writer Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that develops gradually from curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting," she said, forum.altaycoins.com including that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more substantial twist".

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

Opinions, however, vary.

Chen believes 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 tasks, but we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in imaginative writing," he informed CNA.

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As journalists and authors, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a fundamental sci-fi film plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the classic Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created 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 intricate settings - smoggy skies "pierced by skyscrapers", "holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

It also remarkably reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen combat body", wiki.myamens.com 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 end up being waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT installed a great battle, developing a similarly dramatic cyberpunk storyline 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 misconceptions."

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

"The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research center situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new reality and "looking for to comprehend his purpose in this unusual new world", he then escapes and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each fighting with their own existential crises".

The trio then embarks on a quest, navigating the streets of Chongqing to secure the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

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

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not just reproducing Western paradigms, but rather progressing in economical development methods - and delivering localised and yewiki.org enhanced results.

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

DeepSeek's sci-fi motion picture plot demonstrated its innovative flair that produced a more engaging and creative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies precise and accurate actions to concerns about Chinese existing events, which gives it an included advantage.

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

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

"When provided an option, Chinese users want the non-censored variation - similar to anyone 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 percent of individuals utilizing the tool are not attempting to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They're utilizing it for other efficient methods," Chen said.