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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 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 goal and China has its sights on becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "strategically essential" and its venture 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 financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world business applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that really "encouraged" the concept 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 cost benefit" is a distinct function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference expenses - the expenses of utilizing a trained model to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

2025 could also see the introduction of more Chinese AI models tackling innovative thinking tasks.

"We could see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with scientific research study," Chen added.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, analysts say, wiki.whenparked.com developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and affordable ways to use generative AI to tasks and establish more innovative products beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains an 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 numerous to rely on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease model capabilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually found innovative methods to enhance or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a big difference for training very 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, topics deemed delicate by the state are censored on the internet 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 programmed to stay away from domestic politics.

When asked "Who is Xi Jinping", DeepSeek's reply was "Sorry, I'm uncertain how to approach this kind of question yet. Let's chat about math, coding, and reasoning problems rather!"

To further evaluate 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 car attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually taken location, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had actually happened in the city like songs' day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship along with "a couple of practical constraints".

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

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information may likewise restrict its versatility (to carry out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the very same scale as more established AI models which postures extra difficulties throughout real-world implementation."

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

That was after several duplicated attempts - 4 prompts to be precise - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left lots of others hurt, also going on to note details like the date and wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr time, details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.

However, it wrote that "the authorities are performing an extensive investigation into the motives and scenarios surrounding the incident", details which is now obsoleted.

The motorist, Fan, was executed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's reaction completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and terrible event took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a guy named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a car into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a considerable number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The event happened 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 forum.altaycoins.com 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The driver, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was collared by the authorities.

Response: The police reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the hurt to health centers for treatment.

Investigation: The police are carrying out an extensive examination into the motives and situations surrounding the event.

This occasion was commonly reported in the media and triggered significant public concern. The federal government and local authorities have been working to provide assistance to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the event.

If you need more detailed details or have particular questions about the event, feel complimentary to ask.

Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to posture the same concern to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have specific details on events that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".

The altered action likewise raised questions about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had 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 ability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even "emotionally abundant" writing.

"DeepSeek-R1 provided a story with a more reflective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story," wrote tech writer 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 unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more considerable twist".

"DeepSeek wrote a good story but did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident choice."

Opinions, higgledy-piggledy.xyz however, vary.

Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative writing.

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

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As reporters and authors, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a basic sci-fi motion picture 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 storyline embeded in the year 2145 entitled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing".

It consisted of intricate settings - smoggy skies "pierced by skyscrapers", "holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms".

It also brilliantly reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub owner "drowning in financial obligation 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 good battle, creating a similarly dramatic cyberpunk storyline 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 guideline, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient misconceptions."

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

"The motion picture starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research facility located 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 unusual brand-new world", he then escapes and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each struggling with their own existential crises".

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "tough to make a definitive declaration" about which bot was best, including that each displayed its own strengths in various locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not simply reproducing Western paradigms, but rather evolving in economical development approaches - and delivering 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 imaginative flair that produced a more appealing and creative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies precise and accurate reactions to concerns about Chinese existing 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 study firm Strategy Risks.

"When provided an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - just like anybody else, so I feel like that's a piece missing from it."

Independent Beijing-based expert 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 utilizing 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 methods," Chen said.