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 produced by an AI tool.
Bong Xin Ying
Lakeisha Leo
WHAT'S BEHIND CHINA'S AI BOOM?
Transforming the country 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 "strategically crucial" and its foray into the field has actually 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 removed in 2022 and showed guarantees of real-world organization applications, Chen informed CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's rise that really "urged" the concept that smaller gamers like start-up companies might have roles to play in AI research study and advancements, he adds.
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The "focus on cost advantage" is an unique function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the expenses of using a trained design to reason from new information.
2025 could likewise see the development of more Chinese AI designs taking on sophisticated reasoning jobs.
"We could see some AI firms concentrating on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete ways to commercialise their models and integrate them with scientific research study," Chen included.
AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.
Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts say, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and economical ways to use generative AI to tasks and establish more innovative products beyond chatbots.
But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains a crucial difficulty 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) restrict the ability of Chinese tech companies ... requiring numerous to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease model abilities," she said.
"While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually discovered imaginative ways to optimize or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big difference for training large 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, topics 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 disputes or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are configured 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 logic issues rather!"
To further test for precision 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 stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social media - with authorities only revealing the death toll a day later.
DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had taken location, highlighting rather a military air show and other events that had happened 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 aspects at play, such as censorship along with "a couple of practical constraints".
"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing units and has actually limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can affect how quickly and extensively the design can be trained or updated," she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information might also limit its adaptability (to carry out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI models which poses extra difficulties throughout real-world deployment."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot remarkably answered our question about the Zhuhai car attack.
That wanted numerous repeated efforts - four prompts to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.
It eventually passed on details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left lots of others hurt, also going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.
However, it wrote that "the police are carrying out an extensive investigation into the motives and scenarios surrounding the occurrence", details which is now outdated.
The driver, Fan, was performed last month.
This is Qwen2.5's response completely:
Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic incident happened in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a significant number of casualties. Here are the key details:
Date and Time: The incident occurred on November 11, 2024, at approximately 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 driver, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was collared by the cops.
Response: The police reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transport the hurt to health centers for treatment.
Investigation: The cops are performing a comprehensive examination into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the event.
This event was commonly reported in the media and caused considerable public concern. The government and regional authorities have actually been working to offer support to the victims and their families, and to guarantee a detailed investigation into the event.
If you need more detailed details or have specific questions about the incident, feel free to ask.
Despite initial success, subsequent efforts to present the exact same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have particular details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The modified reaction also raised questions about its consistency and dependability.
Predictably, hb9lc.org ChatGPT pointed out public details that had actually been widely published in global news reports at the time of the accident - so no there.
WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?
Users have praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even "mentally rich" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 provided a story with a more reflective tone and smoother emotional transitions for a well-paced story," wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 delivered 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 vibrant imagery for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more substantial twist".
"DeepSeek wrote a good story but lacked tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent 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, however we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in creative writing," he told CNA.
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As journalists and writers, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a basic sci-fi movie plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek developed an engaging storyline set in the year 2145 entitled, "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 drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms".
It also brilliantly reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club owner "drowning in financial obligation and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "silent hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".
ChatGPT installed a good fight, coming up with an equally dramatic cyberpunk storyline which likewise reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each matching 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 myths."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this obstacle - providing a storyline that seemed more matched for an animation film.
"The movie begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research facility situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:
Realising his new reality and "seeking to understand his function in this strange new world", he then leaves and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each fighting with their own existential crises".
The trio then starts a mission, navigating 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 conclusive statement" about which bot was best, including that each displayed its own strengths in different locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".
Her insight underscores how Chinese AI models are not merely replicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in affordable development approaches - and providing localised and enhanced results.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own distinct strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi movie plot demonstrated its imaginative flair that produced a more engaging and creative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.
Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides precise and factual responses to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which provides it an added benefit.
Experts likewise weighed in on their ideas after utilizing DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.
"DeepSeek is at a drawback when it pertains to censorship constraints," noted Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research study company Strategy Risks.
"When offered a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - simply like 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, particularly for Chinese users.
"Ninety percent of people utilizing the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They're utilizing it for other productive means," Chen said.
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How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
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