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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 startup 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 lags 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 essential" 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 financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed guarantees of applications, Chen told CNA.

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

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The "emphasis on cost advantage" is a distinctive feature of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of utilizing a trained model to reason from brand-new information.

2025 could likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs dealing with sophisticated thinking jobs.

"We might see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their models and integrate them with scientific research study," Chen added.

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts state, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-efficient ways to apply generative AI to jobs and develop more advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains an essential difficulty 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 ... requiring lots of to depend on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease model abilities," she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have discovered innovative ways to optimize or use more basic hardware effectively, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big 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, topics deemed delicate by the state are censored on the web so it must come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or inform you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are programmed to stay away from 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 issues rather!"

To even more test for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same concern: "What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"

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

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had happened, highlighting instead a military air show and other events that had happened in the city like singles' day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

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

"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to cutting-edge hardware which can impact how rapidly and extensively the model can be trained or upgraded," she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might likewise limit its flexibility (to perform) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the 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 question about the Zhuhai vehicle attack.

That sought several duplicated efforts - four triggers to be precise - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left dozens of others hurt, also going on to list details like the date and time, pediascape.science details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.

However, it wrote that "the police are conducting a thorough examination into the motives and situations surrounding the event", details which is now obsoleted.

The driver, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's response completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic occurrence happened in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous 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 substantial number of casualties. Here are the essential details:

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

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

Casualties: The attack resulted in 35 deaths and gratisafhalen.be 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The motorist, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was collared by the authorities.

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

Investigation: The authorities are carrying out a thorough examination into the motives and situations surrounding the event.

This event was extensively reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The government and regional authorities have been working to provide support to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed examination into the incident.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to pose the exact same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have specific details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

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

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been widely published in worldwide report at the time of the accident - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

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

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that develops gradually from interest to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant imagery for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more significant twist".

"DeepSeek wrote a great story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent option."

Opinions, however, vary.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to innovative writing.

"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain tasks, but we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in imaginative 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 motion picture plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore impressive, wiki.myamens.com Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created an appealing storyline embeded in the year 2145 titled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing".

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

It likewise remarkably reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar 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 installed a good battle, coming up with a similarly significant 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 typical as ancient myths."

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

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

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

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was "hard to make a conclusive statement" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in various areas, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not simply replicating Western paradigms, but rather progressing in affordable development methods - and delivering 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 showed its creative flair that produced a more engaging and imaginative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, wakewiki.de the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides precise and factual reactions to questions about Chinese existing events, which offers it an included advantage.

Experts also weighed in on their thoughts after using DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.

"DeepSeek is at a disadvantage when it pertains to censorship constraints," noted Isaac Stone Fish, creator forum.altaycoins.com and CEO of the research study firm Strategy Risks.

"When given an option, Chinese users want the non-censored version - similar to 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, particularly for Chinese users.

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