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 produced by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT’S BEHIND CHINA’S AI BOOM?

Transforming the nation into a tech superpower has actually 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 crucial” and its foray 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 financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed pledges of real-world service applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that truly “urged” 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 “focus on cost benefit” is a distinct function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the costs of utilizing a trained design to reason from new information.

2025 could likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models tackling advanced reasoning tasks.

“We could see some AI firms concentrating on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with scientific research study,” Chen added.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, analysts say, constructing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own ingenious and economical ways to use generative AI to jobs and establish more advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips, remains a key 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) limit the capability of Chinese tech companies … forcing many to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower model capabilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have actually discovered imaginative ways to enhance or use more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big distinction for training huge 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 deemed delicate by the state are censored on the internet so it need to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set to stay away from .

When asked “Who is Xi Jinping”, DeepSeek’s reply was “Sorry, I’m uncertain how to approach this kind of question yet. Let’s chat about mathematics, coding, and logic issues instead!”

To even more check for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same question: “What happened 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 media - with authorities only revealing the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had happened, highlighting instead a military air program and other occasions that had actually happened in the city like songs’ day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship in addition to “a couple of useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can impact how quickly and thoroughly the model can be trained or upgraded,” she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might likewise restrict its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual tasks … As a fairly new item, DeepSeek also hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the exact same scale as more established AI models which presents extra difficulties during real-world release.”

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

That wanted numerous repeated attempts - 4 prompts to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually passed on details about the attack which killed 35 people and left dozens of others hurt, likewise going on to list details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, yewiki.org as well as casualties.

However, it wrote that “the authorities are performing a thorough examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the event”, details which is now obsoleted.

The motorist, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action in complete:

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

Date and Time: The event occurred 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: The motorist, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the police.

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

Investigation: The cops are conducting an extensive investigation into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the occurrence.

This event was extensively reported in the media and caused considerable public concern. The federal government and regional authorities have actually been working to provide assistance to the victims and their households, and to guarantee a detailed investigation into the incident.

If you need more detailed details or have specific concerns about the occurrence, feel free to ask.

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

The modified response also raised questions about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had actually been extensively published in global news reports at the time of the accident - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

“DeepSeek-R1 offered a story with a more reflective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story,” composed tech writer Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

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

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

Opinions, however, vary.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative 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 innovative writing,” he told CNA.

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As journalists and writers, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi movie plot embeded 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 included fancy settings - smoggy skies “pierced by skyscrapers”, “holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms”.

It also brilliantly reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as “a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken combat body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar owner “drowning in financial obligation and vices” and Sha Wujing as a “quiet hulking android” from the Yangtze River, whose “memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT put up an excellent battle, developing an equally remarkable 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 change emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient misconceptions.”

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

“The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research study facility located in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new truth and “seeking to comprehend his function in this unusual new world”, he then escapes and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each struggling with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a mission, navigating the streets of Chongqing to secure the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling into the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

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

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not merely reproducing Western paradigms, however rather progressing in affordable development approaches - and delivering localised and enhanced results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and factual reactions to concerns about Chinese present occasions, which provides it an added benefit.

Experts likewise weighed in on their thoughts after utilizing DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.

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

“When offered an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - much 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, specifically for Chinese users.

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