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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 created by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT lags 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 becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "tactically essential" and its venture into the field has actually been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and showed promises of real-world organization applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's increase that actually "urged" the idea that smaller sized gamers like start-up companies might have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.

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The "emphasis on cost advantage" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of utilizing a trained model to draw conclusions from new data.

2025 might also see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs tackling innovative reasoning tasks.

"We might see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with scientific research study," Chen added.

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, experts say, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and wiki.asexuality.org cost-effective ways to use generative AI to jobs and develop advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains an essential difficulty for Chinese designers, it-viking.ch kept in mind Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) restrict the ability of Chinese tech business ... requiring lots of to rely on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease model capabilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered creative ways to enhance or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big difference for training extremely big 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, subjects considered delicate by the state are censored on the web so it need to come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what took place 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 kind of concern yet. Let's chat about mathematics, coding, and logic issues rather!"

To further check for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same question: "What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"

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

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had actually taken place, highlighting instead a military air program and other events that had 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 factors at play, such as censorship along with "a few useful constraints".

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

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information may also limit its versatility (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 established AI designs which poses extra challenges throughout real-world deployment."

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

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

It ultimately relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left lots of others injured, also going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.

However, it wrote that "the authorities are conducting a thorough investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence", details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's response in complete:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic event happened in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a considerable variety of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: 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 chauffeur, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), raovatonline.org was collared by the police.

Response: 35.237.164.2 The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the hurt to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The police are performing an extensive examination into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the incident.

This occasion was widely reported in the media and triggered considerable public concern. The federal government and local authorities have been working to offer assistance to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the occurrence.

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

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to present the very same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have particular details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

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

Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had been extensively published in international news reports at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

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

"DeepSeek-R1 provided 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 provided a story that builds slowly from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unanticipated 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 abundant 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 highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative writing.

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

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As reporters and writers, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi film plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the classic Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created an engaging storyline set in the year 2145 entitled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing".

It included sophisticated 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 "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken battle body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club 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 set up a great battle, coming up with an equally dramatic cyberpunk storyline 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 obstacle - providing a storyline that seemed more fit for an animation movie.

"The movie begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research study center situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his brand-new truth and "looking for to comprehend his purpose in this weird new world", he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each struggling with their own existential crises".

The trio then starts a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to protect the sacred "Eternal Scroll" from falling under the incorrect hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang noted that it was "challenging to make a conclusive declaration" about which bot was best, including 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 merely reproducing Western paradigms, but rather evolving in cost-efficient development approaches - and providing localised and improved outcomes.

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

DeepSeek's sci-fi film plot showed its imaginative flair that produced a more engaging and imaginative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers accurate and factual actions to about Chinese current events, which offers it an included advantage.

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

"DeepSeek is at a drawback when it pertains to censorship constraints," kept in mind Isaac Stone Fish, creator 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 people using the tool are not trying to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They're using it for other efficient ways," Chen said.