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 hb9lc.org 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 country into a tech superpower has actually long been President Xi Jinping’s goal and China has its sights on becoming 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 scientist at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for it-viking.ch China Analysis.

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

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that actually “encouraged” the concept that smaller players like start-up firms could have functions to play in AI research and developments, he adds.

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The “emphasis on cost benefit” is an unique function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of using a trained design to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

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

“We could see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with scientific research,” Chen included.

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

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

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s innovative AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese developers, kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

“US export controls (still) limit the ability of Chinese tech business … requiring many to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease design abilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have found imaginative methods to enhance or use more basic hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge distinction for training large 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 deemed delicate by the state are censored on the internet so it need to come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or inform you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set 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 logic issues instead!”

To further check for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same question: “What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

The cars and truck attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities only revealing the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had occurred, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had actually taken place in the city like singles’ day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship as well as “a couple of useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has limited access to innovative 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 information might likewise limit its flexibility (to perform) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI designs which poses extra challenges throughout real-world implementation.”

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot remarkably addressed our question about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.

That wanted numerous repeated attempts - four prompts to be exact - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually relayed details about the attack which killed 35 individuals 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, as well as casualties.

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

The motorist, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a man Weiqiu (樊某, male, systemcheck-wiki.de 62 years of ages) drove a cars and truck into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a considerable number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The event took place 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 motorist, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was collared by the police.

Response: The cops responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transport the injured to healthcare facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are performing a thorough examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the event.

This event was widely reported in the media and triggered substantial public concern. The government and local authorities have actually been working to offer assistance to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to present the exact same concern to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply “I do not have particular details on occasions that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

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

Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had actually been extensively published in international news reports 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 deliver structured and even “mentally abundant” writing.

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

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops gradually from interest to urgency, 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 significant twist”.

“DeepSeek composed a great story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent option.”

Opinions, though, differ.

Chen thinks 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 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 set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the classic Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created an interesting 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 fancy settings - smoggy skies “pierced by skyscrapers”, “holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms”.

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

ChatGPT put up a great battle, creating an equally 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 guideline, corporations change emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - delivering a storyline that seemed more matched for an animation movie.

“The film starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research center situated in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his brand-new truth and “seeking to comprehend his purpose in this strange new world”, he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - “each having problem with their own existential crises”.

The trio then embarks on a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to protect the spiritual “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 declaration” about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in various areas, “such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not simply reproducing Western paradigms, but rather evolving in affordable development methods - and providing localised and oeclub.org improved results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers precise and factual actions to concerns about Chinese current occasions, which gives it an included advantage.

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,” kept in mind Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research firm Strategy Risks.

“When offered an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - similar to anybody else, so I seem 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, yewiki.org particularly for Chinese users.

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