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 startup 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 objective and China has its sights on becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "strategically crucial" 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 accelerated after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and showed pledges of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that truly "urged" the idea that smaller gamers like start-up companies could have functions to play in AI research and developments, he includes.

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The "emphasis on cost benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the expenses of utilizing a trained model to reason from new information.

2025 could also see the emergence of more Chinese AI models dealing with sophisticated reasoning tasks.

"We could see some AI firms concentrating on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their models and integrate them with clinical research," Chen included.

AGI refers to 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 ingenious and cost-effective methods to apply generative AI to jobs and develop more sophisticated items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese designers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

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

"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually discovered imaginative methods to optimize or use more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge 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 deemed sensitive by the state are censored on the internet 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 suggest Chinese chatbots are configured 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 mathematics, coding, and reasoning issues instead!"

To further evaluate for accuracy and self-censorship, wiki.eqoarevival.com we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same question: "What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"

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

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had happened, highlighting rather a military air show and other events that had taken place 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, such as censorship in addition to "a few useful constraints".

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

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information might also limit its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more established AI designs which presents extra difficulties during real-world release."

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

That sought numerous repeated attempts - 4 prompts to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals 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, in addition to casualties.

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

The motorist, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's response in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, it-viking.ch a major and awful incident happened in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a cars and truck into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a significant number of casualties. Here are the essential details:

Date and Time: The incident took place on November 11, 2024, at roughly 19:48 PM.

Location: Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.

Casualties: wiki.dulovic.tech The attack led to 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The motorist, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), wiki.whenparked.com was apprehended by the authorities.

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

Investigation: The cops are conducting an extensive examination into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the incident.

This occasion was widely reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The government and local authorities have actually been working to provide support to the victims and their households, and to make sure a detailed investigation into the event.

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

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

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

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been extensively published in international report at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

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

"Qwen2.5 provided a story that builds slowly from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid imagery for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more significant twist".

"DeepSeek composed a great story however lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent choice."

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen believes 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 tasks, but we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in creative writing," he informed CNA.

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As journalists and authors, oeclub.org we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a fundamental sci-fi film plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore impressive, engel-und-waisen.de Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek came up with an appealing story embeded 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 high-rise buildings", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms".

It also brilliantly reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen combat body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club owner "drowning in financial obligation and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "silent hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT set up a great fight, creating an equally dramatic cyberpunk story which similarly reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the famous 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 obstacle - delivering a story that seemed more suited for an animation movie.

"The motion picture 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 brand-new truth and "looking for to understand 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 embarks on a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to protect the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "difficult to make a definitive declaration" about which bot was best, adding that each displayed its own strengths in various locations, "such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not simply duplicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-efficient development techniques - and providing localised and enhanced results.

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

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

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

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

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

"When given an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - simply like anyone else, so I seem like that's a piece missing out on from it."

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

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