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 startup 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 ending up being 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”, systemcheck-wiki.de said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated 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 ratemywifey.com showed pledges of real-world business applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that truly “encouraged” the idea that smaller sized players like start-up firms might have functions to play in AI research and advancements, he includes.

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The “emphasis on expense benefit” is a distinct feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and reasoning costs - the costs of utilizing a trained design to reason from brand-new data.

2025 could likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models dealing with innovative reasoning jobs.

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, experts state, building on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and economical ways to apply generative AI to jobs and establish more sophisticated products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s innovative AI chips, remains a crucial difficulty 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 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 actually found imaginative ways to optimize or utilize more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big difference for training large AI designs.”

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

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are configured to guide clear of 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 mathematics, coding, and reasoning problems instead!”

To further evaluate for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same question: “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 networks - with authorities only divulging the death toll a day later on.

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

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of aspects at play, surgiteams.com such as censorship along with “a few practical constraints”.

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

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might also limit its versatility (to perform) multilingual tasks … As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized AI designs which postures extra difficulties during real-world release.”

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot remarkably answered our concern about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.

That sought numerous duplicated efforts - four triggers to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually passed on about the attack which killed 35 individuals and left lots of others hurt, 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 composed that “the authorities are performing a thorough examination into the motives and scenarios surrounding the event”, details which is now obsoleted.

The driver, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action completely:

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

Date and Time: The occurrence happened on November 11, 2024, at around 19:48 PM.

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

Casualties: wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de The attack led to 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The motorist, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was collared by the police.

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

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

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

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

Despite initial success, subsequent efforts to present the very same question to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I don’t have particular details on occasions that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

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

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been extensively released in global report at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have 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 transitions for a well-paced story,” wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that constructs slowly from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately “crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek composed a great story but lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent option.”

Opinions, however, vary.

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 jobs, however we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative writing,” he informed CNA.

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

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

It included sophisticated 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 also remarkably reimagined standard 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 become waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT set up a good battle, coming up with an equally dramatic cyberpunk story 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 replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient myths.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this obstacle - providing a storyline that seemed more fit for an animation movie.

“The movie starts 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 “seeking to comprehend his purpose in this odd brand-new world”, he then escapes and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each dealing with their own existential crises”.

The trio then embarks on a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to secure the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling into the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “tough to make a conclusive declaration” about which bot was best, adding 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 simply reproducing Western paradigms, however rather developing in cost-efficient innovation techniques - and delivering localised and improved 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 appealing and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies precise and factual responses to questions about Chinese current events, demo.qkseo.in which offers it an added advantage.

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

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

“When offered a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored version - much like anybody else, so I seem 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, particularly for Chinese users.

“Ninety percent of people using the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They’re utilizing it for other productive methods,” Chen said.