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 lags CHINA’S AI BOOM?

Transforming the country into a tech superpower has actually 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 essential” and its venture into the field has actually 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 removed in 2022 and revealed promises of real-world organization applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that actually “urged” the idea that smaller gamers like start-up firms might have functions to play in AI research and advancements, he includes.

'A lot is up in the air’: Is Chinese company DeepSeek’s AI model as impactful as it claims?

Commentary: DeepSeek - how a Chinese AI company just altered the guidelines of tech-geopolitics

The “focus on expense advantage” is an unique function of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and setiathome.berkeley.edu reasoning costs - the expenses of using a trained model to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

2025 might also see the development of more Chinese AI models tackling innovative reasoning jobs.

"We could see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with clinical research study,” Chen added.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, experts state, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-efficient ways to apply generative AI to jobs and establish more innovative products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, wiki.whenparked.com particularly Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, remains an essential hurdle for Chinese designers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) restrict the ability of Chinese tech business ... requiring many to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease design abilities,” she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered creative ways to optimize or use more fundamental hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big distinction for training very big AI designs.“

DeepSeek-Nvidia chips: Singapore says it anticipates companies to abide by its laws

US checking out whether DeepSeek utilized limited AI chips obtained through other countries, source says

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, subjects considered sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or inform you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend 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 math, coding, and logic problems rather!“

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

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

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had actually occurred, highlighting instead a military air show and other events that had in the city like songs’ 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 as well as “a couple of useful constraints”.

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

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might likewise limit its flexibility (to carry out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been checked as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI designs which presents extra difficulties throughout real-world implementation.“

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

That wanted numerous duplicated attempts - four prompts to be exact - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually 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, as well as 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 dated.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s reaction in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and terrible incident occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial number of casualties. Here are the crucial details:

Date and Time: The event took place on November 11, 2024, at around 19:48 PM.

Location: systemcheck-wiki.de Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.

Casualties: The attack resulted in 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The chauffeur, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, wiki.whenparked.com 62 years old), was apprehended by the authorities.

Response: genbecle.com The authorities reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the hurt to hospitals for treatment.

Investigation: The cops are carrying out a thorough investigation into the motives and circumstances surrounding the incident.

This event was extensively reported in the media and caused considerable public concern. The government and regional authorities have been working to provide support to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the occurrence.

If you require more detailed details or have particular questions about the incident, do not hesitate to ask.

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

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

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had actually been widely released in international report at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

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

"Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops slowly from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It uses 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, emotionally abundant 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 option.“

Opinions, though, vary.

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

Related:

China’s brand-new face of AI: Who is DeepSeek creator Liang Wenfeng?

'Made in China’: Pride, pleasant surprise from Chinese netizens as DeepSeek jolts international AI scene

As journalists and authors, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a fundamental sci-fi movie plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

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

It included elaborate settings - smoggy skies “pierced by high-rise buildings”, “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 taken 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 end up being waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT put up a good fight, developing an equally significant cyberpunk storyline 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 rule, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient myths.“

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - delivering a storyline that appeared more fit for an animation film.

"The motion picture starts 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 new reality and “looking for to understand his function in this unusual brand-new world”, he then escapes and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each having problem with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a quest, browsing the streets of Chongqing to safeguard the sacred “Eternal Scroll” from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “hard 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 data and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not just duplicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-efficient innovation methods - and delivering localised and improved results.

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

DeepSeek’s sci-fi film plot demonstrated its creative flair that made for a more appealing 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 concerns about Chinese present events, which offers it an added benefit.

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

"When given 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, particularly for Chinese users.

"Ninety per cent of people using the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate topics. They’re utilizing it for other productive methods,” Chen said.