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 produced 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 “strategically crucial” and its venture into the field has been “years in the making”, said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated scientist at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

Private and public investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world service applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that actually “urged” the concept that smaller players like start-up companies could have functions to play in AI research and developments, he includes.

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The “focus on expense benefit” is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and wiki.rolandradio.net reasoning expenses - the expenses of using a trained design to reason from brand-new data.

2025 might also see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs taking on advanced reasoning tasks.

“We could 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 study,” Chen added.

AGI describes 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 ingenious and cost-effective methods to apply generative AI to tasks and develop more sophisticated products beyond chatbots.

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

“US export controls (still) restrict the ability of Chinese tech companies … requiring lots of to depend on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease design capabilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have actually discovered creative methods to optimize or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big distinction 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, subjects deemed sensitive by the state are censored on the web so it must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what took place 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 kind of concern yet. Let’s chat about math, coding, and logic problems rather!”

To even more test for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same question: “What occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

The cars and truck attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities only disclosing the death toll a day later.

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

Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship as well as “a couple of useful constraints”.

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

“Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information may likewise limit its versatility (to perform) multilingual jobs … As a fairly new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more established AI models which postures extra difficulties throughout real-world deployment.”

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

That was after numerous repeated attempts - 4 triggers to be precise - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left lots of others injured, likewise going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.

However, it composed that “the police are conducting an extensive investigation into the motives and scenarios surrounding the incident”, details which is now dated.

The motorist, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s reaction in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and terrible occurrence occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a considerable number of casualties. Here are the crucial details:

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

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

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

Perpetrator: bytes-the-dust.com The driver, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was collared by the cops.

Response: The cops responded quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to carry the injured to healthcare facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The police are performing an extensive investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event.

This occasion was widely reported in the media and archmageriseswiki.com caused significant public concern. The federal government and local authorities have been working to offer support to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed examination into the incident.

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

Despite initial success, subsequent attempts to present the exact same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I don’t have particular details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The modified action also raised questions about its consistency and garagesale.es dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had actually been commonly released in global report at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE ?

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 delivered a story that builds gradually from interest to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant imagery for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more substantial twist”.

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

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform 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 likewise see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in imaginative writing,” he told CNA.

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

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

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

It also brilliantly reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as “a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club 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 installed a great fight, developing an equally remarkable cyberpunk storyline which likewise 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 common as ancient myths.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - delivering a story that seemed more suited for an animation movie.

“The motion picture begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research study facility situated 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 strange new world”, he then leaves and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each fighting with their own existential crises”.

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was “hard 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 models are not just duplicating Western paradigms, however rather developing in cost-efficient development approaches - and delivering localised and improved outcomes.

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

DeepSeek’s sci-fi film plot demonstrated its innovative flair that produced a more engaging and setiathome.berkeley.edu creative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides precise and accurate actions to concerns about Chinese existing events, which provides it an included advantage.

Experts likewise weighed in on their ideas after using DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.

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

“When offered a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - simply like anyone else, so I seem like that’s a piece missing from it.”

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

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