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 actually long been President Xi Jinping's objective and China has its sights on ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

AI as being "strategically important" 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 idea that smaller players like start-up firms might have roles to play in AI research and developments, he adds.

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The "emphasis on cost benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the costs of using a trained model to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

2025 might also see the development of more Chinese AI models dealing with sophisticated reasoning jobs.

"We might see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with scientific research," Chen included.

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, analysts state, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-efficient methods to use generative AI to jobs and develop advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's advanced AI chips, remains an essential obstacle for Chinese designers, 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 companies ... forcing many to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower design abilities," she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have found innovative ways to enhance or utilize more basic hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big distinction for training large 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, subjects considered delicate by the state are censored on the internet so it need to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or inform you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend 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 kind of question yet. Let's chat about mathematics, coding, and reasoning issues rather!"

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

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

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had taken place, setiathome.berkeley.edu highlighting rather a military air show and other events that had happened in the city like songs' day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship as well as "a few practical constraints".

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

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information may also limit its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI designs which presents extra obstacles throughout real-world implementation."

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

That wanted multiple repeated efforts - four prompts to be precise - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left dozens of others injured, setiathome.berkeley.edu also going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, as well as casualties.

However, it wrote that "the cops are carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event", details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's action completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful event took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, archmageriseswiki.com 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, resulting in a considerable variety of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The event took place on November 11, 2024, at approximately 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, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was nabbed by the authorities.

Response: The police reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the injured to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The cops are carrying out a comprehensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the incident.

This event was commonly reported in the media and caused considerable public issue. The federal government and regional authorities have been working to offer assistance to the victims and their households, and to make sure a detailed investigation into the incident.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to position the same question to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have particular details on occasions that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

The modified reaction also raised questions about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been widely released in global report at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even "emotionally rich" writing.

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

"Qwen2.5 provided a story that constructs slowly from curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting," she said, including that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally abundant story with a more significant twist".

"DeepSeek wrote an excellent story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice."

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out 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 strongly as others in innovative writing," he told CNA.

Related:

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As reporters 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, including main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek came up with an appealing story embeded in the year 2145 entitled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing".

It consisted of sophisticated settings - smoggy skies "pierced by high-rise buildings", "holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

It also brilliantly reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub owner "drowning in financial obligation and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "quiet hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT put up an excellent battle, coming up with a similarly remarkable cyberpunk story which similarly reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the legendary 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 story that appeared more fit for an animation film.

"The movie starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research study 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 purpose in this strange new world", he then leaves and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each having problem with their own existential crises".

The trio then embarks on a mission, navigating the streets of Chongqing to protect the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was "tough to make a conclusive declaration" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in different locations, "such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not merely reproducing Western paradigms, however rather evolving in cost-efficient innovation methods - and providing localised and improved results.

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

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

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