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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 country 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 crucial" and its foray 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 accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed guarantees of applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that truly "urged" the idea that smaller gamers like start-up companies could have functions to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.

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The "focus on cost advantage" is a distinct function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the expenses of using a trained design to reason from brand-new data.

2025 might likewise see the development of more Chinese AI models taking on innovative reasoning tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, experts state, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and economical methods to use generative AI to tasks and develop more innovative items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains an essential obstacle for Chinese designers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) limit the capability of Chinese tech business ... requiring many to depend on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and minimize design capabilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually found creative ways to optimize or use more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big difference 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, topics considered delicate by the state are censored on the web so it ought to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or inform you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest 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 kind of question yet. Let's chat about math, coding, and reasoning problems instead!"

To even more check for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same concern: "What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"

The vehicle attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities only divulging the death toll a day later.

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

Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of elements at play, such as censorship along with "a few useful constraints".

"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has limited access to advanced 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 might also restrict its versatility (to bring out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI designs which poses additional difficulties during real-world deployment."

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

That wanted numerous duplicated efforts - four triggers to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually relayed details about the attack which killed 35 people and left lots of others hurt, likewise going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, in addition to casualties.

However, yewiki.org it composed that "the authorities are carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the motives and scenarios surrounding the incident", details which is now dated.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's action completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and genbecle.com terrible occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a male named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a substantial number of casualties. Here are the crucial details:

Date and Time: The occurrence happened on November 11, 2024, at roughly 19:48 PM.

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

Casualties: pipewiki.org The attack led to 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The chauffeur, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the authorities.

Response: The cops responded rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to carry the hurt to hospitals for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are performing a comprehensive examination into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the occurrence.

This occasion was extensively reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The 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 occurrence.

If you need more detailed details or have specific concerns about the event, do not hesitate to ask.

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

The transformed response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been extensively released in global report at the time of the accident - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

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

"Qwen2.5 provided a story that builds slowly from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid imagery for the setting," she said, bytes-the-dust.com adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more substantial twist".

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

Opinions, however, differ.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not perform 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 strongly as others in innovative 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 standard sci-fi motion picture plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the classic Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created an interesting story set in the year 2145 entitled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing".

It included fancy 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 traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken combat 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 become waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT set up a good battle, coming up with an equally remarkable cyberpunk storyline which likewise 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 replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient myths."

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - providing a story that seemed more fit for an animation movie.

"The film starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research center situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new truth and "seeking to understand his function in this unusual brand-new world", he then escapes and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each having problem with their own existential crises".

The trio then starts a quest, wiki.dulovic.tech browsing the streets of Chongqing to secure the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was "difficult to make a definitive statement" about which bot was best, including that each displayed its own strengths in various areas, "such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization".

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not merely duplicating Western paradigms, however rather developing in cost-effective development methods - and providing localised and improved results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies precise and factual actions to concerns about Chinese current events, which offers it an added advantage.

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

"DeepSeek is at a drawback 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 want the non-censored variation - much like anybody else, so I feel like that's a piece missing out on from it."

Independent Beijing-based specialist Andy Chen Xinran said censorship would not be a dealbreaker when it pertains to AI bots, especially for Chinese users.

"Ninety percent of people utilizing the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive subjects. They're using it for other productive ways," Chen said.