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: wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de Reuters/Dado Ruvic, AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

This audio is created by an AI tool.

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 objective and China has its sights on ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “tactically important” and its venture into the field has actually 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 financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed guarantees of real-world business applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that truly “urged” the idea that smaller players like start-up firms could have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.

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The “focus on cost benefit” is a distinctive feature of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the expenses of using a trained model to reason from brand-new data.

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

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, experts state, constructing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-efficient ways to use generative AI to jobs and develop more innovative products beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s innovative AI chips, remains a crucial obstacle for Chinese developers, kept in mind 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 business … requiring many to rely on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease design abilities,” she said.

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have found innovative methods to optimize or utilize more basic hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a huge distinction for training huge 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, topics deemed delicate by the state are censored on the web so it should come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set to stay away from 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 rather!”

To even more test for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very 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 networks - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had actually taken location, highlighting instead a military air show and other occasions that had occurred in the city like singles’ day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.

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

“DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can affect how rapidly and extensively the model can be trained or upgraded,” she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong concentrate 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 same scale as more established AI models which presents additional difficulties throughout real-world deployment.”

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

That wanted multiple duplicated attempts - 4 prompts to be exact - in a span of around 20 minutes.

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

However, it wrote that “the cops are carrying out an extensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence”, details which is now obsoleted.

The driver, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful event occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, higgledy-piggledy.xyz leading to a considerable variety of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The occurrence took place on November 11, 2024, at approximately 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, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was apprehended by the police.

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

Investigation: The cops are performing a comprehensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the incident.

This event was widely reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The federal government and local authorities have been working to supply assistance to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the incident.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to pose the very same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply “I don’t have specific details on occasions that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The altered response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and it-viking.ch reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been widely released in worldwide news reports at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even “mentally rich” writing.

“DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more reflective tone and smoother psychological transitions for a well-paced story,” wrote tech author fishtanklive.wiki Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

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

“DeepSeek composed a great story however did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent option.”

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not perform as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative 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 imaginative writing,” he informed CNA.

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As journalists and authors, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi film plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.

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

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

It likewise brilliantly reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen 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 put up a great battle, creating a similarly remarkable cyberpunk story 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 rule, corporations change emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - delivering a storyline that seemed more suited for an animation film.

“The movie begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research study center located 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 weird brand-new world”, he then leaves and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each having problem with their own existential crises”.

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was “tough to make a definitive declaration” about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in various areas, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not simply replicating Western paradigms, however rather evolving in cost-efficient innovation methods - and delivering localised and enhanced outcomes.

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

DeepSeek’s sci-fi film plot demonstrated its creative flair that made for a more engaging and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides accurate and factual actions to questions about Chinese existing events, which gives it an added advantage.

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

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

“When given an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - similar to anyone else, so I feel 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, especially for Chinese users.

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