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: Reuters/Dado Ruvic, AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

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Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT lags 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 ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “tactically important” and its venture 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 showed guarantees of real-world business applications, Chen told CNA.

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

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The “focus on cost benefit” is a distinctive function of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference expenses - the expenses of using a trained model to draw conclusions from brand-new data.

2025 might also see the of more Chinese AI designs dealing with sophisticated 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 models and integrate them with clinical research,” Chen included.

AGI refers to 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 economical ways to use generative AI to jobs and develop more advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips, remains a crucial obstacle for wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) limit the ability of Chinese tech companies ... requiring 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 creative methods to optimize or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big distinction for training extremely big 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 sensitive 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 stay away from domestic politics.

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 rather!“

To further evaluate for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same concern: “What occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?“

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

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

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship along with “a couple of practical constraints”.

"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has limited access to innovative hardware which can affect how rapidly and extensively the model can be trained or updated,” she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data may also limit its versatility (to perform) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek also hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI models which postures additional obstacles during real-world implementation.“

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot remarkably answered our question about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.

That wanted multiple duplicated attempts - four triggers to be precise - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually relayed details about the attack which killed 35 individuals and left dozens of others hurt, also going on to list 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 an extensive examination into the motives and circumstances surrounding the incident”, details which is now dated.

The motorist, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man called 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 significant number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The incident occurred on November 11, 2024, surgiteams.com 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 old), was collared by the authorities.

Response: The authorities reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transport the injured to health centers for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are carrying out a comprehensive examination into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the event.

This event was widely reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The government and local authorities have actually been working to supply assistance to the victims and their families, systemcheck-wiki.de and to guarantee a detailed investigation into the incident.

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

Despite initial success, subsequent attempts 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 events that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The altered reaction likewise raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been commonly published in global news reports at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and bytes-the-dust.com even “mentally abundant” writing.

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

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that constructs gradually from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant imagery for the setting,” she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more significant twist”.

"DeepSeek composed a great story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious choice.“

Opinions, however, vary.

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 told CNA.

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As reporters and authors, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a fundamental sci-fi motion picture plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the classic Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

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

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

It also remarkably reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as “a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen battle 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, gratisafhalen.be whose “memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT installed a good fight, developing an equally remarkable 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 rule, corporations change emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions.“

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

"The motion picture begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research center located in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his brand-new truth and “seeking to understand his function in this weird new world”, he then gets away and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each having a hard time with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a mission, gratisafhalen.be browsing the streets of Chongqing to safeguard the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling into the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “difficult to make a definitive statement” about which bot was best, including that each showed its own strengths in different locations, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not just replicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in economical innovation approaches - and delivering localised and enhanced results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides accurate and accurate responses to concerns about Chinese existing events, which provides it an added benefit.

Experts also weighed in on their thoughts after utilizing 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 company Strategy Risks.

"When provided an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - similar to anyone else, so I seem like that’s a piece missing 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 individuals utilizing the tool are not attempting to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re using it for other productive methods,” Chen said.