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 nation into a tech superpower has long been President Xi Jinping’s goal and China has its sights on becoming 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 affiliated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed promises of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that actually “encouraged” the idea that smaller sized players like start-up firms could have functions to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.

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The “emphasis on expense advantage” is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference expenses - the costs of using a trained model to reason from brand-new information.

2025 could likewise see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs taking on sophisticated thinking jobs.

"We could see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with clinical research,” Chen included.

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, forum.altaycoins.com experts state, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and economical ways to AI to tasks and establish advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, pediascape.science access to high-end hardware, larsaluarna.se particularly Nvidia’s innovative 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 companies ... forcing many to count on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and minimize model capabilities,” she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually discovered imaginative ways to enhance or use more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big difference for training very big AI models.“

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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 must come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend 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 concern yet. Let’s chat about mathematics, coding, and logic problems rather!“

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

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

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had taken location, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had actually occurred in the city like songs’ day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it might be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship as well as “a couple of useful constraints”.

"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to advanced hardware which can affect how quickly and thoroughly the design can be trained or updated,” she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might also limit its versatility (to carry out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been checked as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI models which presents additional challenges throughout real-world release.“

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

That was after multiple repeated attempts - 4 triggers to be accurate - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left lots of others hurt, 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 composed that “the police are conducting a thorough investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the incident”, details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s response in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful incident took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a man called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a substantial variety of casualties. Here are the crucial details:

Date and Time: The incident took place on November 11, 2024, at approximately 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 chauffeur, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was apprehended by the authorities.

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

Investigation: The authorities are carrying out a comprehensive examination into the intentions and scenarios 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 provide support to the victims and their households, and to guarantee a detailed examination into the event.

If you need more detailed details or have specific concerns about the event, feel totally free to ask.

Despite initial success, subsequent efforts to pose the same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply “I do not have specific details on occasions that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

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

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had actually been commonly released in international 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 “mentally rich” writing.

"DeepSeek-R1 used 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 curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant images for the setting,” she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more substantial twist”.

"DeepSeek wrote a great story but did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice.“

Opinions, though, vary.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform as highly 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 informed CNA.

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

True to form, DeepSeek created 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 skyscrapers”, “holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms”.

It also brilliantly reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken fight body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar owner “drowning in debt 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 great fight, pipewiki.org coming up with a similarly dramatic cyberpunk storyline which likewise 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 myths.“

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

"The film starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research study center situated 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 strange new world”, he then escapes and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each fighting with their own existential crises”.

The trio then embarks on a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to protect 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, adding that each showed its own strengths in different areas, “such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not just reproducing Western paradigms, however rather evolving in economical innovation techniques - and delivering localised and improved outcomes.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and wiki.whenparked.com factual actions to concerns about Chinese existing events, which offers it an added benefit.

Experts likewise weighed in on their ideas after utilizing DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.

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

"When provided a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored version - similar to 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 people using the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re utilizing it for other productive ways,” Chen said.