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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 generated 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 becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "strategically crucial" and its venture into the field has been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an associated 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 guarantees of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that really "encouraged" the idea that smaller sized players like start-up companies might have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he adds.

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The "emphasis on cost advantage" is an unique feature of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of using a trained design to draw conclusions from new data.

2025 might likewise see the development of more Chinese AI designs dealing with innovative reasoning tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, experts state, constructing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-efficient ways to use generative AI to tasks and establish advanced items beyond chatbots.

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

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

"While some business like DeepSeek, have found imaginative ways to optimize or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big difference for training extremely big AI designs."

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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 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 disputes or tell you what took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest 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 type of question yet. Let's chat about math, coding, and logic issues instead!"

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

The cars and truck attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later on.

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

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

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

"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information may likewise restrict its versatility (to carry out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more established AI designs which positions additional obstacles during real-world release."

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, remarkably addressed our concern about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.

That sought several repeated attempts - four prompts to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately communicated details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left dozens of others hurt, likewise going on to list details like the date and engel-und-waisen.de time, details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.

However, it composed that "the authorities are performing an extensive investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event", details which is now outdated.

The driver, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's reaction in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful event happened in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a male called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a car into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a significant variety of casualties. Here are the essential details:

Date and Time: The event happened on November 11, 2024, at roughly 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 chauffeur, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was nabbed by the police.

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

Investigation: The cops are performing a comprehensive investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the event.

This event was widely reported in the media and triggered substantial public issue. The federal government and local authorities have actually been working to offer support to the victims and their families, and to make sure a detailed examination into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to position the very same question to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have particular details on events that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

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

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had actually been widely published in worldwide report 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 "mentally rich" writing.

"DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more reflective tone and smoother psychological shifts for a well-paced story," wrote tech author 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 unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid imagery for the setting," she said, including that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more substantial twist".

"DeepSeek wrote an excellent story however lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option."

Opinions, however, differ.

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 likewise see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in innovative writing," he told CNA.

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As journalists and authors, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi film plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek came up with 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 intricate settings - smoggy skies "pierced by skyscrapers", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

It also remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen combat body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar owner "drowning in debt and vices" and fishtanklive.wiki Sha Wujing as a "silent hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores end up being waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT put up an excellent fight, coming up with a similarly remarkable cyberpunk storyline which similarly reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the famous 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 misconceptions."

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - providing a storyline that appeared more suited for an animation film.

"The movie starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research center located in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new truth and "seeking to comprehend his purpose in this odd brand-new world", he then gets away and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each struggling with their own existential crises".

The trio then starts a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to secure the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "challenging to make a conclusive statement" about which bot was best, including that each displayed its own strengths in various areas, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI models are not simply replicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in affordable 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 movie plot showed its imaginative flair that made for a more engaging and creative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers precise and factual actions to questions about Chinese present events, which provides it an included advantage.

Experts also 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, creator and CEO of the research company Strategy Risks.

"When offered a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored variation - similar to anybody else, so I seem like that's a piece missing out on from it."

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

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