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)

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

China views AI as being “tactically essential” and its venture 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 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 rise that actually “encouraged” the concept that smaller sized gamers like start-up firms might have functions to play in AI research and developments, he includes.

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

2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models tackling advanced thinking tasks.

"We could see some AI firms concentrating on getting closer to synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their designs and integrate them with scientific research study,” Chen included.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, analysts say, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own ingenious and economical methods to use generative AI to tasks and establish advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese designers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor disgaeawiki.info 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 rely on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease model abilities,” she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually found innovative methods to enhance or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big difference 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, subjects considered sensitive by the state are censored on the web so it ought to come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are configured 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 question yet. Let’s chat about mathematics, coding, and reasoning problems instead!“

To further test for precision and forum.pinoo.com.tr self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same question: “What occurred 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 networks - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had actually happened, highlighting instead a military air show and other occasions that had actually happened in the city like songs’ day shopping sales in addition to 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 useful constraints”.

"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to cutting-edge hardware which can impact how rapidly and extensively the model can be trained or upgraded,” she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language data might likewise restrict its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized AI designs which poses additional obstacles throughout real-world release.“

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

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

It ultimately relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left lots of others injured, likewise going on to list details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, in addition to casualties.

However, it wrote that “the authorities are performing a comprehensive investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence”, details which is now obsoleted.

The driver, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s reaction in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic incident took place in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a guy named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove a car 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 took place 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 driver, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was nabbed by the authorities.

Response: The authorities reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the injured to medical facilities for treatment.

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

This occasion was extensively reported in the media and caused considerable public concern. The government and regional authorities have actually been working to offer support to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed examination into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to present the exact same question 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 modified reaction also raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been widely released in international news at the time of the accident - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

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

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that constructs gradually from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately “crafted a more cinematic, emotionally abundant story with a more substantial twist”.

"DeepSeek composed an excellent story but lacked tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent choice.“

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to creative writing.

”(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain tasks, but we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in creative writing,” he told CNA.

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As journalists 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 embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

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

It consisted of intricate 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 remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as “a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar 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 set up a great battle, developing a similarly significant cyberpunk storyline 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 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 matched for an animation film.

"The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research facility situated 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 odd new world”, he then leaves and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each having problem with their own existential crises”.

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “tough to make a conclusive statement” 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 designs are not simply reproducing Western paradigms, but rather evolving in economical development techniques - and delivering localised and improved outcomes.

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

DeepSeek’s sci-fi motion picture plot showed its imaginative flair that made for a more appealing and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides precise and disgaeawiki.info accurate actions to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which gives it an added advantage.

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

"DeepSeek is at a disadvantage when it pertains to censorship constraints,” kept in mind Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research company Strategy Risks.

"When provided a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored version - just like anyone else, so I feel 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, particularly for Chinese users.

"Ninety per cent of individuals utilizing the tool are not attempting to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re utilizing it for other productive means,” Chen said.