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)

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 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 essential" 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 accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world business applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's increase that actually "encouraged" the concept that smaller sized gamers like start-up companies might have functions to play in AI research study and hb9lc.org advancements, he adds.

'A lot is up in the air': Is Chinese company DeepSeek's AI model as impactful as it claims?

Commentary: DeepSeek - how a Chinese AI company simply changed the guidelines of tech-geopolitics

The "focus on cost advantage" is a distinct feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the costs of utilizing a trained design to reason from new data.

2025 might likewise see the development of more Chinese AI designs taking on advanced 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 study," Chen added.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, analysts state, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-efficient ways to AI to tasks and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains a crucial 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 ... forcing lots of to depend on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease model abilities," she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually discovered imaginative ways to enhance or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge difference for training large AI models."

DeepSeek-Nvidia chips: Singapore states it anticipates companies to abide by its laws

US looking into whether DeepSeek utilized restricted AI chips obtained through other countries, source says

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, 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 disagreements or inform you what took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are set to stay away from 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 mathematics, 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 occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"

The vehicle attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first heavily censored on Chinese social media - with authorities only revealing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had actually happened, highlighting instead a military air show and other events that had actually 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 aspects at play, archmageriseswiki.com such as censorship as well as "a couple of practical constraints".

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

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information might likewise restrict its versatility (to carry out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been checked as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI models which positions additional difficulties during real-world release."

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

That wanted multiple repeated efforts - four triggers to be exact - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually passed on details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left lots of others injured, also going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, in addition to casualties.

However, it wrote that "the authorities are conducting a thorough investigation into the motives and circumstances surrounding the event", details which is now dated.

The driver, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's reaction in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a guy called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a car into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a significant variety of casualties. Here are the crucial details:

Date and Time: The occurrence took place on November 11, 2024, pediascape.science 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 motorist, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was collared by the cops.

Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the injured to healthcare facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The police are carrying out an extensive examination into the motives and scenarios surrounding the incident.

This occasion was widely reported in the media and triggered substantial public concern. The federal government and regional authorities have actually been working to supply assistance to the victims and their families, and to guarantee a detailed investigation into the occurrence.

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

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

The altered reaction also raised questions about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been commonly published in international report at the time of the accident - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even "emotionally abundant" writing.

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

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that constructs slowly from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting," she said, including that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more substantial twist".

"DeepSeek composed an excellent story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent choice."

Opinions, though, differ.

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

"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain tasks, however we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in innovative writing," he informed CNA.

Related:

China's brand-new face of AI: Who is DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng?

'Made in China': Pride, pleasant surprise from Chinese netizens as DeepSeek shocks global AI scene

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

True to form, DeepSeek came up with an engaging story set in the year 2145 entitled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing".

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

It also remarkably reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken fight body", wiki.asexuality.org Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub 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 installed an excellent battle, developing 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 guideline, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient myths."

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 modern research facility located in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new reality and "looking for to understand his function in this weird brand-new world", he then escapes and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each dealing with their own existential crises".

The trio then embarks on a mission, navigating the streets of Chongqing to safeguard the sacred "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "challenging to make a conclusive declaration" 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 highlights how Chinese AI designs are not merely duplicating Western paradigms, but rather progressing in affordable innovation methods - and providing localised and enhanced results.

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

DeepSeek's sci-fi film 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, larsaluarna.se supplies accurate and factual actions to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which offers it an added benefit.

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

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

"When provided a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - just like anybody else, so I feel 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, specifically for Chinese users.

"Ninety per cent of individuals utilizing the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They're using it for other efficient means," Chen said.