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 created by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT'S BEHIND CHINA'S AI BOOM?

Transforming the nation into a tech superpower has actually long been President Xi Jinping's goal and wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de China has its sights on becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “strategically crucial” 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 showed promises of real-world business applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that actually “urged” the concept that smaller sized gamers like start-up companies might have roles to play in AI research and developments, he includes.

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The “focus on expense benefit” is a distinct feature of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the costs of using a trained design to reason from brand-new information.

2025 might also see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs taking on sophisticated thinking jobs.

"We could see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their models and incorporate them with scientific research study,” Chen added.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, experts state, constructing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and economical ways to apply generative AI to jobs and develop more advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains an essential hurdle for higgledy-piggledy.xyz 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) limit the capability of Chinese tech companies ... requiring many to depend on older or lower-performance alternatives 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 standard hardware efficiently, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big difference for training large AI designs.“

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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, subjects deemed delicate by the state are censored on the internet so it should come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set to steer clear of 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 problems instead!“

To further check for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same question: “What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?“

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

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually occurred, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had happened in the city like singles’ day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship in addition to “a few practical constraints”.

"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to innovative hardware which can impact how rapidly and thoroughly the design can be trained or upgraded,” she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might also restrict its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the same scale as more established AI designs which presents additional challenges during real-world implementation.“

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

That sought several repeated efforts - 4 prompts to be exact - 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 note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, in addition to casualties.

However, surgiteams.com it composed that “the police are performing an extensive investigation into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the occurrence”, details which is now outdated.

The motorist, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's action in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful occurrence happened in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a guy named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a considerable variety of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The incident took place on November 11, 2024, at around 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 motorist, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the cops.

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

Investigation: The authorities are performing a thorough examination into the motives and situations surrounding the event.

This event was extensively reported in the media and triggered significant public issue. The federal government and regional authorities have been working to offer assistance to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed examination into the incident.

If you require more detailed details or have specific questions about the event, do not hesitate to ask.

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to present the very same concern 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 response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had been extensively published in international 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 introspective tone and smoother psychological shifts for a well-paced story,” wrote tech author genbecle.com Amanda Caswell, who in AI.

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that constructs gradually from interest to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unexpected 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, emotionally abundant story with a more considerable twist”.

"DeepSeek composed a great story however lacked tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice.“

Opinions, though, vary.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not perform as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to innovative writing.

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

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As journalists and writers, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi movie plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the classic Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek came up with 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 consisted of intricate settings - smoggy skies “pierced by high-rise buildings”, “holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms”.

It likewise brilliantly reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken battle 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 end up being waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT set up a good battle, developing an equally dramatic cyberpunk story which similarly 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 common as ancient misconceptions.“

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this obstacle - providing a story that seemed more suited for an animation film.

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

Realising his brand-new reality and “seeking to comprehend his purpose in this unusual new world”, he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each having a hard time with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a mission, wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr browsing the streets of Chongqing to protect the spiritual “Eternal Scroll” from falling into the wrong 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 displayed its own strengths in different locations, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not just replicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in cost-efficient development techniques - and providing localised and enhanced outcomes.

In our tests, each bot showcased their own special strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons 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 established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers precise and factual actions to questions about Chinese current occasions, which provides it an added advantage.

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, engel-und-waisen.de creator and CEO of the research study firm Strategy Risks.

"When given an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - much like anyone else, so I feel like that's a piece missing 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 percent of individuals utilizing the tool are not attempting to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They're utilizing it for other productive ways,” Chen said.