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 generated by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT’S BEHIND CHINA’S AI BOOM?

Transforming the nation into a tech superpower has long been President Xi Jinping’s objective and China has its sights on becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “strategically essential” and its foray into the field has been “years in the making”, 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 removed in 2022 and revealed promises of real-world organization applications, Chen told CNA.

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

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

2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs taking on sophisticated thinking tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, experts say, building on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective ways to use generative AI to jobs and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor setiathome.berkeley.edu at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) limit the capability of Chinese tech business … forcing numerous to depend on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease design abilities,” she said.

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually found imaginative ways to enhance or use more basic hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge distinction for training huge 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, 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 took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are set to avoid 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 math, coding, and logic issues rather!”

To even more check for and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, archmageriseswiki.com Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same question: “What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

The car attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just disclosing the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had actually taken location, highlighting instead a military air program and other events that had happened in the city like songs’ day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of elements at play, such as censorship along with “a couple of practical constraints”.

“DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to advanced 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 focus on Chinese-language data may also restrict its flexibility (to perform) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more established AI models which postures additional obstacles during real-world release.”

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

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

It ultimately communicated details about the attack which killed 35 individuals and left dozens of others hurt, also 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 a comprehensive examination into the motives and scenarios surrounding the occurrence”, details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s response in full:

Answer: wiki.asexuality.org On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a male named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a cars and truck into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a considerable number of casualties. Here are the essential 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 motorist, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was collared by the authorities.

Response: The police responded rapidly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the injured to health centers for forum.altaycoins.com treatment.

Investigation: The police are conducting a comprehensive investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the incident.

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

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

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

The transformed response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been extensively released in worldwide 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 offered a story with a more introspective tone and smoother psychological transitions for a well-paced story,” composed tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that builds gradually from curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting,” she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more considerable twist”.

“DeepSeek composed a good story but did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice.”

Opinions, though, vary.

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

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As reporters and 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 traditional Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

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

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

It also remarkably reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen combat body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub 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 put up an excellent 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 guideline, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions.”

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

“The film starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research center situated in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new reality and “looking for to comprehend his purpose in this strange brand-new world”, he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each dealing with their own existential crises”.

The trio then embarks on a quest, navigating the streets of Chongqing to secure the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “challenging to make a definitive declaration” about which bot was best, adding that each displayed its own strengths in different areas, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not merely duplicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in economical innovation techniques - and delivering localised and enhanced outcomes.

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

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

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

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

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

“When given a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored variation - just like 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 using the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate topics. They’re using it for other productive ways,” Chen said.