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 ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "tactically important" and its foray into the field has been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an associated 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 revealed guarantees of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's increase that truly "encouraged" the idea that smaller gamers like start-up companies could have roles to play in AI research and advancements, he includes.

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The "focus on expense benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the expenses of utilizing a trained model to reason from new information.

2025 could also see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs taking on advanced thinking tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, analysts state, constructing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-effective ways to apply generative AI to tasks and develop more advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's advanced AI chips, remains an essential difficulty for Chinese developers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) restrict the capability of Chinese tech companies ... requiring many to count on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and minimize model capabilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have found creative ways to enhance or utilize more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big distinction for training large AI models."

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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 considered delicate by the state are censored on the internet so it should come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or inform you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest 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 mathematics, coding, and logic problems instead!"

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

The vehicle attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had happened, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had actually happened in the city like singles' day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.

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

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

"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language data might likewise restrict its adaptability (to carry out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI designs which poses extra challenges throughout real-world deployment."

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

That wanted multiple repeated efforts - 4 triggers to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which eliminated 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 wrote that "the authorities are carrying out a thorough investigation 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 occurrence 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, resulting in a significant variety of casualties. Here are the key 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 led to 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The chauffeur, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was apprehended by the authorities.

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

Investigation: The authorities are performing an extensive investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the incident.

This event was commonly reported in the media and triggered considerable 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 occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, setiathome.berkeley.edu subsequent efforts to pose the exact same concern to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have particular details on occasions that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

The altered response likewise raised questions about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, bio.rogstecnologia.com.br ChatGPT cited public details that had actually been commonly released in worldwide report at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even "emotionally abundant" writing.

"DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more reflective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story," composed 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 unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid imagery for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more considerable twist".

"DeepSeek wrote an excellent story however lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option."

Opinions, however, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to creative writing.

"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain tasks, however we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative writing," he told CNA.

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

True to form, DeepSeek came up with an interesting story embeded in the year 2145 titled, "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 float above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

It likewise remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen battle body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar owner "drowning in debt and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "quiet hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT put up a great fight, developing an equally dramatic cyberpunk storyline 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 guideline, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient misconceptions."

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

"The movie begins 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 brand-new reality and "seeking to understand his purpose in this unusual new world", he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each struggling with their own existential crises".

The trio then embarks on a quest, navigating the streets of Chongqing to safeguard the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was "hard to make a definitive statement" about which bot was best, including that each displayed its own strengths in various locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not just reproducing Western paradigms, however rather evolving in economical innovation techniques - and providing localised and enhanced outcomes.

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

DeepSeek's sci-fi motion picture plot demonstrated its creative flair that produced a more engaging and imaginative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies accurate and accurate actions to questions about Chinese current events, which provides it an included benefit.

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

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

"When offered a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - similar to anybody else, so I feel like that's a piece missing out on from it."

Independent Beijing-based specialist 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 sensitive subjects. They're using it for other efficient ways," Chen said.