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, engel-und-waisen.de 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 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 essential” and its foray 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 took off in 2022 and revealed pledges of real-world service applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that actually “encouraged” the idea that smaller sized players like start-up firms might have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he adds.

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The “focus on expense benefit” is a distinct function of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the costs of utilizing a trained model to draw conclusions from new data.

2025 could also see the introduction of more Chinese AI sophisticated reasoning jobs.

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, analysts say, building on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and affordable methods to use generative AI to jobs and establish 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, noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) restrict the capability of Chinese tech companies … forcing numerous to rely on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and minimize design capabilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have found innovative methods to enhance or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big difference for training large 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, subjects deemed delicate by the state are censored on the web so it should come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are configured 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 concern yet. Let’s chat about mathematics, coding, and logic problems instead!”

To further test for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same concern: “What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

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

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had happened, highlighting instead a military air program and other events that had happened in the city like songs’ day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it might be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship as well as “a few practical constraints”.

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

“Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information might also restrict its adaptability (to bring out) multilingual tasks … As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized AI models which presents extra challenges throughout real-world implementation.”

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

That wanted several duplicated attempts - four triggers to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately communicated details about the attack which killed 35 people and left lots of others hurt, also going on to list details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de along with casualties.

However, it wrote that “the authorities are carrying out a comprehensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the event”, details which is now outdated.

The motorist, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s reaction completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful incident took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a male called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a considerable number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The occurrence 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, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was collared by the cops.

Response: The authorities responded rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to carry the hurt to healthcare facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The police are carrying out a thorough examination into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the incident.

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

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to position the same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I do not have specific details on occasions that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The altered reaction likewise raised questions about its consistency and dependability.

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

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even “mentally abundant” writing.

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

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops slowly from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant imagery for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately “crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek composed an excellent story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option.”

Opinions, however, vary.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out 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 strongly as others in imaginative writing,” he told CNA.

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

True to form, DeepSeek created an interesting storyline set in the year 2145 entitled, “Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra” - which sees “a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing”.

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

It likewise remarkably reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as “a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar 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 set up an excellent battle, developing an equally significant cyberpunk story which likewise reimagined “a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the legendary 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 myths.”

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

“The movie starts 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 comprehend his function in this unusual brand-new world”, he then escapes and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each having problem with their own existential crises”.

The trio then embarks on a quest, navigating the streets of Chongqing to safeguard the spiritual “Eternal Scroll” from falling under the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “tough to make a conclusive statement” about which bot was best, including that each showed its own strengths in various areas, “such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not simply replicating Western paradigms, however rather evolving in economical development approaches - and providing localised and enhanced results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and trademarketclassifieds.com factual actions to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which gives it an added advantage.

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

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

“When provided an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - just like anyone else, so I seem 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, particularly for Chinese users.

“Ninety per cent of individuals using the tool are not attempting to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive subjects. They’re utilizing it for other efficient means,” Chen said.