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 higgledy-piggledy.xyz OpenAI’s ChatGPT. (Photos: Reuters/Dado Ruvic, AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

This audio is created 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 objective and China has its sights on ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “strategically important” and its venture into the field has been “years in the making”, said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr China Analysis.

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world service applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that truly “encouraged” the idea that smaller players like start-up companies might have functions to play in AI research study and developments, he adds.

‘A lot is up in the air’: surgiteams.com Is Chinese company DeepSeek’s AI design as impactful as it claims?

Commentary: DeepSeek - how a Chinese AI business just changed the rules of tech-geopolitics

The “focus on cost advantage” is an unique feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of using a trained model to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

2025 could likewise see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs tackling sophisticated thinking jobs.

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, analysts state, developing on to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective methods to apply generative AI to tasks and develop advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s innovative AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese designers, systemcheck-wiki.de noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

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

“While some companies like DeepSeek, have found creative methods to enhance or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a huge distinction for training large AI designs.”

DeepSeek-Nvidia chips: Singapore says it anticipates business to comply with its laws

US checking out whether DeepSeek used limited AI chips obtained through other countries, source says

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, subjects considered sensitive by the state are censored on the web so it need to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are set to guide clear of domestic politics.

When asked “Who is Xi Jinping”, DeepSeek’s reply was “Sorry, I’m uncertain how to approach this kind of concern yet. Let’s chat about math, coding, and reasoning issues instead!”

To even more check for hb9lc.org precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same question: “What took place 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 only revealing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had happened, highlighting rather a military air program and other occasions that had taken place in the city like songs’ day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of elements at play, such as censorship in addition to “a few useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has actually limited access to innovative hardware which can impact how rapidly and extensively the model can be trained or upgraded,” she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

“Its strong focus on Chinese-language data may also restrict its versatility (to perform) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized AI designs which poses extra difficulties during real-world implementation.”

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot surprisingly addressed our question about the Zhuhai car attack.

That wanted several duplicated attempts - 4 prompts to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which killed 35 people and left dozens of others injured, also going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, as well as casualties.

However, it composed that “the authorities are carrying out an extensive examination into the motives and situations surrounding the incident”, details which is now dated.

The driver, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s reaction completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic incident happened in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a guy named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial variety of casualties. Here are the crucial details:

Date and Time: The event 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 motorist, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was apprehended by the cops.

Response: The cops reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the hurt to healthcare facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The cops are conducting an extensive examination into the motives and circumstances surrounding the incident.

This occasion was commonly reported in the media and caused considerable public issue. The government and local authorities have been working to offer assistance to the victims and their families, and to make sure a detailed investigation into the incident.

If you require more detailed details or have specific concerns about the incident, feel totally free to ask.

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to position the very same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in 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 transformed action also raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.

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

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

“DeepSeek-R1 offered a story with a more introspective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story,” composed tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

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

“DeepSeek wrote a good story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice.”

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to creative writing.

”(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, but we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in imaginative writing,” he informed CNA.

Related:

China’s new face of AI: Who is DeepSeek creator Liang Wenfeng?

‘Made in China’: Pride, pleasant surprise from Chinese netizens as DeepSeek jolts worldwide AI scene

As journalists and writers, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a fundamental sci-fi motion picture plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created an appealing story embeded in the year 2145 entitled, “Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra” - which sees “a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing”.

It included elaborate settings - smoggy skies “pierced by skyscrapers”, “holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms”.

It likewise remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken fight body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar owner “drowning in debt and vices” and Sha Wujing as a “quiet hulking android” from the Yangtze River, whose “memory cores end up being waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT set up an excellent fight, coming up with an equally remarkable cyberpunk story which similarly 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 change emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient misconceptions.”

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

“The motion picture begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research center located in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new reality and “looking for to understand his purpose 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 embarks on a mission, navigating the streets of Chongqing to secure 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, including that each displayed its own strengths in different areas, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not merely reproducing Western paradigms, but rather progressing in cost-efficient development methods - and delivering localised and improved results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and accurate reactions to concerns about Chinese existing occasions, which gives it an included benefit.

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

“DeepSeek is at a downside when it pertains to censorship constraints,” noted Isaac Stone Fish, creator raovatonline.org and CEO of the research company Strategy Risks.

“When provided an option, Chinese users want the non-censored version - just like anyone else, so I feel like that’s a piece missing out on 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 using the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re utilizing it for other productive ways,” Chen said.