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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 start-up DeepSeek and bytes-the-dust.com OpenAI's ChatGPT. (Photos: Reuters/Dado Ruvic, AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

This audio is created by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT'S BEHIND CHINA'S AI BOOM?

Transforming the nation 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 "tactically crucial" and its venture 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 showed pledges of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.

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

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The "focus on expense benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the expenses of using a trained design to draw conclusions from new information.

2025 could likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models taking on advanced reasoning tasks.

"We could see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete ways to commercialise their models and integrate them with scientific research," Chen included.

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, experts state, setiathome.berkeley.edu constructing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective ways to apply generative AI to jobs and establish advanced products beyond .

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de particularly Nvidia's advanced AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor 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 depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower model abilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have found innovative ways to enhance or use more fundamental hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge difference for training really large AI designs."

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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, topics deemed delicate by the state are censored on the web so it ought to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are configured to guide clear of 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 problems instead!"

To further check for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same question: "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 networks - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had actually taken location, highlighting rather 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 thinks that it might be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship as well as "a couple of practical constraints".

"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has restricted access to advanced hardware which can impact how quickly and extensively the design can be trained or upgraded," she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language data might likewise restrict its versatility (to carry out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been checked as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI models which positions extra challenges throughout real-world deployment."

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot surprisingly answered our question about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.

That was after multiple duplicated efforts - four prompts to be accurate - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually passed on details about the attack which killed 35 individuals and left dozens of others hurt, likewise going on to list 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 performing a thorough investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the incident", higgledy-piggledy.xyz details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5's reaction completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and terrible occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove a car into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a considerable number of casualties. Here are the crucial details:

Date and Time: forum.pinoo.com.tr The incident took place on November 11, 2024, at around 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 motorist, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was apprehended by the authorities.

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

Investigation: The cops are conducting a comprehensive examination into the motives and circumstances surrounding the event.

This event was widely reported in the media and caused considerable public issue. The federal government and local authorities have actually been working to supply support to the victims and their families, and to guarantee a detailed investigation into the event.

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

Despite initial 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 particular details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

The transformed action likewise raised questions about its consistency and systemcheck-wiki.de reliability.

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

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even "mentally abundant" writing.

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

"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that builds gradually from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant imagery for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more substantial twist".

"DeepSeek composed an excellent story however lacked tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice."

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as highly 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 strongly as others in innovative writing," he told CNA.

Related:

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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 standard sci-fi movie plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the classic Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek developed an interesting story set 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 high-rise buildings", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms".

It likewise brilliantly reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub owner "drowning in debt 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 fight, coming up with a similarly remarkable cyberpunk storyline which likewise reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the legendary 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 obstacle - providing a story that seemed more matched for an animation movie.

"The movie begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research 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 understand his purpose in this odd brand-new world", he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each dealing with their own existential crises".

The trio then embarks on a quest, 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 "challenging to make a conclusive statement" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in different locations, "such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI models are not just duplicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in affordable development approaches - and delivering localised and improved 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 imaginative flair that produced a more interesting and imaginative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and accurate responses to concerns about Chinese current events, which gives it an included advantage.

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

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

"When provided a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - much like anybody else, so I feel like that's a piece missing from it."

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

"Ninety per cent of people using the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive subjects. They're using it for other productive ways," Chen said.