How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?

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 video 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)

This audio is created by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT’S BEHIND 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 becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “tactically essential” and its foray 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 took off in 2022 and revealed pledges of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.

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

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The “focus on expense benefit” is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference expenses – the expenses of utilizing a trained design to reason from brand-new information.

2025 might likewise see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs dealing with advanced reasoning tasks.

“We might see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their models and incorporate them with clinical research,” Chen added.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, analysts state, constructing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective methods to apply generative AI to jobs and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, higgledy-piggledy.xyz particularly Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) restrict the capability of Chinese tech companies … requiring numerous to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and reduce design capabilities,” she said.

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have discovered imaginative methods to enhance or use more fundamental hardware efficiently, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge distinction for training large 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 deemed delicate by the state are censored on the web so it must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are programmed to avoid 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 logic problems rather!”

To even more 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 initially greatly censored on Chinese social networks – with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had occurred, highlighting rather a military air program and other occasions that had occurred 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 in addition to “a couple of useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has limited access to advanced hardware which can impact how rapidly and thoroughly the design can be trained or updated,” she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information might also restrict its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek also hasn’t yet been checked as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI designs which positions extra challenges during real-world implementation.”

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

That was after attempts – 4 prompts to be exact – in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left lots of others hurt, 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 police are conducting a comprehensive examination into the motives and situations surrounding the occurrence”, details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s response in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic incident happened in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a male named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a considerable number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The occurrence occurred 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 driver, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was nabbed by the police.

Response: The police responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the injured to health centers for raovatonline.org treatment.

Investigation: The cops are carrying out a comprehensive examination into the motives and circumstances surrounding the occurrence.

This event was widely reported in the media and caused considerable public issue. The federal government and local authorities have been working to offer assistance to the victims and their households, and to guarantee a detailed examination into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to pose the same question to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I do not have specific details on events that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

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

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had been widely published in worldwide report 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 introspective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story,” wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops gradually from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid imagery for the setting,” she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek composed a good story but lacked tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice.”

Opinions, however, vary.

Chen thinks 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 imaginative writing,” he told 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 set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the classic Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created an interesting storyline embeded 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 in between quantum server farms”.

It likewise remarkably reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as “a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken combat body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub owner “drowning in debt and vices” and Sha Wujing as a “quiet hulking android” from the Yangtze River, whose “memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT put up a great battle, coming up with a similarly significant 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 myths.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this obstacle – providing a storyline that seemed more fit for an animation movie.

“The film begins 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 brand-new truth and “looking for to understand his function in this strange brand-new world”, he then gets away and engel-und-waisen.de fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing – “each fighting with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a quest, 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 “tough to make a definitive declaration” about which bot was best, adding that each displayed its own strengths in various locations, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not simply replicating Western paradigms, however rather evolving in cost-effective innovation approaches – and delivering localised and improved results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides accurate and accurate reactions to concerns about Chinese current occasions, which provides it an added 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 firm Strategy Risks.

“When offered an option, 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 expert Andy Chen Xinran said censorship would not be a dealbreaker when it pertains to AI bots, especially for Chinese users.

“Ninety percent of individuals using the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They’re utilizing it for other productive methods,” Chen said.