How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?

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’S BEHIND 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 becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “tactically important” and its foray 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 investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and bytes-the-dust.com showed promises of real-world service applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that actually “encouraged” the concept that smaller sized players like firms might have roles to play in AI research and advancements, he adds.

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The “focus on cost benefit” is a distinguishing characteristic 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 might also see the emergence of more Chinese AI models tackling sophisticated thinking jobs.

“We could see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their models and incorporate them with clinical research,” Chen added.

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

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

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips, remains a key difficulty for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor pipewiki.org at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) restrict the ability of Chinese tech companies … forcing numerous to rely on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and lower model capabilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered creative methods to optimize or utilize more basic hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big distinction for training huge 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 deemed sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it need to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are programmed to steer clear of domestic politics.

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

To even more check for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same question: “What occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

The vehicle attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first heavily censored on Chinese social networks – with authorities only disclosing the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had occurred, highlighting instead a military air program and other occasions that had occurred in the city like songs’ day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship in addition to “a couple of useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing units and has limited access to cutting-edge 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 focus on Chinese-language data may also restrict its versatility (to perform) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek also hasn’t yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI models which postures extra challenges throughout real-world implementation.”

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot remarkably answered our concern about the Zhuhai automobile attack.

That was after numerous duplicated efforts – 4 triggers to be exact – in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which killed 35 people and left lots of others injured, likewise going on to list details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.

However, wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de it wrote that “the police are conducting a thorough examination into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event”, details which is now obsoleted.

The motorist, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s reaction completely:

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

Date and Time: The occurrence took place 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 43 injuries.

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

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

Investigation: The authorities are conducting an extensive investigation into the motives and scenarios surrounding the occurrence.

This event was extensively reported in the media and triggered substantial public concern. The federal government and local authorities have been working to supply assistance to the victims and their families, and to make sure a detailed examination into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to present the same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I don’t have particular details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

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

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had been extensively released in global news reports at the time of the accident – so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even “emotionally rich” writing.

“DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more reflective tone and smoother psychological transitions for a well-paced story,” wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that constructs slowly from curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 eventually “crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more considerable twist”.

“DeepSeek composed a great story however lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice.”

Opinions, however, differ.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as strongly as DeepSeek and engel-und-waisen.de ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative writing.

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

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

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

It consisted of intricate settings – smoggy skies “pierced by skyscrapers”, “holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms”.

It likewise remarkably reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as “a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen combat body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub 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 put up a great fight, coming up with an equally significant 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 rule, corporations replace 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 film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research facility situated in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new truth and “seeking to comprehend his function in this weird brand-new world”, he then leaves and fulfills Zhu Bajie and trademarketclassifieds.com Sha Wujing – “each struggling with their own existential crises”.

The trio then starts a quest, browsing the streets of Chongqing to protect the spiritual “Eternal Scroll” from falling under the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was “hard to make a definitive statement” about which bot was best, yewiki.org including that each showed its own strengths in different locations, “such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization”.

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not simply duplicating Western paradigms, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de however rather evolving 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 showed its innovative flair that made for 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, supplies precise and accurate actions to questions about Chinese current occasions, which provides it an added benefit.

Experts likewise weighed in on their thoughts after utilizing DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.

“DeepSeek is at a downside when it pertains to censorship constraints,” kept in mind Isaac Stone Fish, creator and CEO of the research study firm Strategy Risks.

“When provided an option, Chinese users want the non-censored version – simply like anybody else, so I feel like that’s a piece missing from it.”

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

“Ninety percent of people using the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They’re utilizing it for other efficient means,” Chen said.