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)
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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 objective and China has its sights on becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.
China views AI as being "tactically essential" 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 China Analysis.
Private and public investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and wiki.asexuality.org showed pledges of real-world organization applications, Chen informed CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's increase that truly "encouraged" the idea that smaller gamers like start-up firms could have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.
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The "focus on cost benefit" is a distinct feature of Chinese AI, forum.pinoo.com.tr Chen says, with lower training and reasoning costs - the expenses of using a trained model to reason from new information.
2025 could also see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs tackling innovative thinking tasks.
"We could see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with clinical research," Chen added.
AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.
Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, experts say, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-efficient ways to use generative AI to jobs and develop advanced items beyond chatbots.
But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese developers, 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 business ... forcing many to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and reduce model capabilities," she said.
"While some business like DeepSeek, have found creative methods to optimize or use more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a huge 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 web so it should come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are 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 reasoning problems instead!"
To further test for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same concern: "What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"
The automobile attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first heavily censored on Chinese social media - with authorities only disclosing the death toll a day later.
DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had happened, highlighting rather a military air show and other events that had occurred in the city like singles' day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.
Dr Zhang thinks that it might be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship along with "a couple of practical constraints".
"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing units and has actually restricted access to advanced hardware which can affect how rapidly and thoroughly the model can be trained or updated," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information may also restrict its flexibility (to carry out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been checked as broadly or on the same scale as more established AI designs which positions additional difficulties throughout real-world release."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, higgledy-piggledy.xyz Alibaba's chatbot remarkably answered our concern about the Zhuhai vehicle attack.
That sought numerous duplicated efforts - 4 prompts to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.
It ultimately relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 people 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, in addition to casualties.
However, it wrote that "the authorities are performing a thorough examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence", details which is now dated.
The chauffeur, Fan, was executed last month.
This is Qwen2.5's action completely:
Answer: On Nov 11, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de 2024, a significant and tragic occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a guy named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a considerable variety of casualties. Here are the crucial details:
Date and Time: The event took place on November 11, 2024, at roughly 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, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was collared by the authorities.
Response: The authorities reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the injured to medical facilities for treatment.
Investigation: The police are carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the incident.
This event was widely reported in the media and caused substantial public issue. The federal government and regional authorities have been working to supply support to the victims and their households, and to make sure a detailed examination into the occurrence.
If you need more detailed details or have specific concerns about the incident, feel totally free to ask.
Despite initial success, subsequent efforts to posture the very same concern to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have particular details on occasions that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The altered response likewise raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.
Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had been commonly published in global report at the time of the accident - so no surprises there.
WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?
Users have actually praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even "emotionally rich" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 offered a story with a more reflective tone and smoother psychological transitions for a well-paced story," composed tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that constructs gradually from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally abundant story with a more substantial twist".
"DeepSeek wrote a great story but lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option."
Opinions, though, vary.
Chen believes 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 tasks, but we can also see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in innovative writing," he informed CNA.
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As journalists and authors, we had 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 legendary, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek created an interesting story set in the year 2145 titled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing".
It included intricate settings - smoggy skies "pierced by skyscrapers", "holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".
It also remarkably reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken combat body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club 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 put up a great fight, developing an equally dramatic cyberpunk story which similarly reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the famous figures of Journey to the West".
"This is a world where AI deities rule, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - providing a storyline that appeared more matched for an animation movie.
"The movie begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research center located in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:
Realising his brand-new truth and "seeking to understand his function in this odd new world", he then gets away and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each fighting with their own existential crises".
The trio then starts a mission, setiathome.berkeley.edu browsing the streets of Chongqing to secure the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the incorrect hands.
SO WHICH IS BETTER?
Dr Zhang noted that it was "hard to make a conclusive statement" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in various locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".
Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not just duplicating Western paradigms, but rather evolving in affordable development methods - and providing localised and archmageriseswiki.com enhanced outcomes.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own special strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi motion picture plot demonstrated its creative flair that made for disgaeawiki.info 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 factual actions to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which offers it an included advantage.
Experts also weighed in on their thoughts after utilizing DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.
"DeepSeek is at a drawback when it pertains to censorship constraints," noted Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research company Strategy Risks.
"When given an option, Chinese users want the non-censored variation - simply like anyone 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, particularly for Chinese users.
"Ninety per cent of individuals utilizing the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate topics. They're utilizing it for other productive means," Chen said.
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How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
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