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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 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 nation into a tech superpower has actually 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 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 systemcheck-wiki.de China Analysis.

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed pledges of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that really "urged" the concept that smaller players like start-up companies might have functions to play in AI research and developments, he adds.

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The "emphasis on expense benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the expenses of using a trained model to reason from brand-new data.

2025 might also see the development of more Chinese AI models taking on sophisticated reasoning tasks.

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

AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human capabilities.

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, analysts say, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective methods to use generative AI to tasks and establish more sophisticated items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, wiki.dulovic.tech especially Nvidia's advanced AI chips, remains a key obstacle 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) limit the capability of Chinese tech companies ... forcing lots of to rely on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower design capabilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually discovered creative ways to optimize or use more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge distinction for training huge AI models."

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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 must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or inform you what took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

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

When asked "Who is Xi Jinping", wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de DeepSeek's reply was "Sorry, I'm uncertain how to approach this type of concern yet. Let's chat about mathematics, coding, and reasoning problems rather!"

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

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

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually occurred, highlighting instead a military air show and other occasions that had actually occurred in the city like singles' day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of elements at play, such as censorship in addition to "a couple of useful constraints".

"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has actually limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can affect how quickly and thoroughly 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 also restrict its versatility (to bring out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized AI models which positions additional obstacles throughout real-world deployment."

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

That was after multiple repeated efforts - four triggers to be exact - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left lots of others injured, likewise 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 wrote that "the cops are performing an extensive investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the event", details which is now dated.

The chauffeur, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's reaction in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and terrible occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a guy called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a significant variety of casualties. Here are the essential details:

Date and Time: The occurrence occurred on November 11, 2024, at approximately 19:48 PM.

Location: wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de 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 old), was captured by the cops.

Response: The police reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transfer the injured to hospitals for archmageriseswiki.com treatment.

Investigation: The cops are performing an extensive examination into the motives and situations surrounding the incident.

This event was widely reported in the media and triggered substantial public concern. The federal government and regional authorities have actually been working to supply assistance to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed examination into the incident.

If you require more detailed details or have particular concerns about the occurrence, do not hesitate to ask.

Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to pose the exact same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have specific details on occasions that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

The altered reaction also raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.

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

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have actually praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even "emotionally abundant" writing.

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

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that develops slowly from interest to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant imagery for the setting," she said, including that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, mentally abundant story with a more considerable twist".

"DeepSeek composed a good story but did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious option."

Opinions, though, vary.

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

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

Related:

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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 motion picture plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek developed an interesting storyline set in the year 2145 titled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing".

It included sophisticated settings - smoggy skies "pierced by high-rise buildings", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".

It also remarkably reimagined traditional 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 "silent hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".

ChatGPT installed a good fight, developing a similarly remarkable cyberpunk story 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 rule, corporations change emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient misconceptions."

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

"The film starts 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 comprehend his function in this weird brand-new world", he then gets away and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each fighting with their own existential crises".

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "difficult to make a definitive 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 highlights how Chinese AI designs are not just duplicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in affordable innovation techniques - and providing localised and enhanced outcomes.

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

DeepSeek's sci-fi movie plot showed its innovative flair that made for a more interesting and creative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides accurate and accurate actions to concerns about Chinese present events, which provides it an added advantage.

Experts also weighed in on their ideas 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, founder and CEO of the research study company Strategy Risks.

"When provided an option, Chinese users want the non-censored variation - much like anyone else, so I seem 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, specifically for Chinese users.

"Ninety percent of individuals 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 ways," Chen said.