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)

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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 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 actually been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.

Private and public investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed promises of real-world organization applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that truly "urged" the concept that smaller players like start-up companies might have functions to play in AI research study and advancements, he adds.

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

2025 could likewise see the development of more Chinese AI models dealing with sophisticated thinking tasks.

"We might see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with scientific research," Chen added.

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, experts state, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and economical methods to use generative AI to jobs and establish advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, remains an essential hurdle 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) limit the ability of Chinese tech business ... requiring numerous to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower model abilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually discovered creative ways to enhance or utilize more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big distinction for training really 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, subjects considered sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it need 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 programmed 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 issues instead!"

To further check for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and hb9lc.org ChatGPT the very 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 at first heavily censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just disclosing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually taken location, highlighting instead a military air program and other events that had actually taken place in the city like songs' day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it might be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship in addition to "a few useful constraints".

"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing units and has actually restricted access to innovative hardware which can impact how quickly and extensively the model can be trained or upgraded," she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information might also limit its versatility (to perform) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI models which poses additional challenges throughout real-world release."

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

That sought several duplicated attempts - 4 triggers to be exact - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left dozens of others injured, also 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 composed that "the cops are conducting a thorough investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the occurrence", details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's action completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic event occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a guy named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a cars and truck into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The event occurred on November 11, 2024, systemcheck-wiki.de at around 19:48 PM.

Location: Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.

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

Perpetrator: The driver, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was apprehended by the police.

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

Investigation: The authorities are performing an extensive examination into the motives and scenarios surrounding the event.

This occasion 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, and to a detailed investigation into the incident.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to posture the exact same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have specific details on events that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

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

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been extensively released in worldwide 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 even "emotionally rich" writing.

"DeepSeek-R1 provided a story with a more reflective tone and smoother psychological transitions 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 urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more considerable twist".

"DeepSeek wrote an excellent story however did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent option."

Opinions, though, vary.

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

"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain tasks, but we can also see that it is refraining from doing as strongly 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 fundamental sci-fi movie plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek developed an appealing 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 high-rise buildings", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

It also remarkably reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken battle body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club owner "drowning in debt and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "quiet hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores end up being waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT put up a good battle, developing a similarly remarkable cyberpunk story which similarly 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 change emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient myths."

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - providing a storyline that seemed more matched for an animation film.

"The film 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 truth and "looking for to understand his purpose in this weird brand-new world", he then gets away and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each battling with their own existential crises".

The trio then embarks on a mission, 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 "tough to make a definitive statement" about which bot was best, wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr adding that each showed its own strengths in various areas, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not just replicating Western paradigms, however rather developing in cost-effective development methods - and delivering localised and enhanced results.

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

DeepSeek's sci-fi film plot demonstrated its innovative flair that made for a more appealing and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, pediascape.science unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies accurate and factual actions to concerns about Chinese present events, which gives it an included advantage.

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

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

"When provided an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - similar to anybody 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 percent of people using the tool are not attempting to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate topics. They're using it for other efficient ways," Chen said.