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)

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Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT lags CHINA’S AI BOOM?

Transforming the country into a tech superpower has long been President Xi Jinping’s goal and China has its sights on ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being “strategically essential” and its venture into the field has actually 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 sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and showed guarantees of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s rise that truly “urged” the idea that smaller sized players like start-up companies might have roles to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.

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The “emphasis on expense benefit” is a distinct feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of using a trained model to reason from brand-new data.

2025 might also see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs dealing with advanced reasoning jobs.

“We could see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete ways to commercialise their models and incorporate them with clinical research,” Chen added.

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

Chinese AI business are moving quickly, experts state, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-efficient methods to apply generative AI to tasks and develop more innovative products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, remains a crucial obstacle for Chinese designers, 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 ability of Chinese tech companies … requiring many to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and minimize design abilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered innovative ways to enhance or use more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big difference for training huge 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 considered delicate by the state are censored on the internet 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 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 kind of question yet. Let’s chat about mathematics, coding, and reasoning issues rather!”

To even more evaluate for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same question: “What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?”

The car attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had actually taken location, highlighting rather a military air and other events that had actually taken place in the city like songs’ day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of elements at play, such as censorship along with “a few practical constraints”.

“DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has actually limited access to innovative hardware which can impact 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 data may likewise limit its adaptability (to perform) multilingual jobs … As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been checked as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized 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 car attack.

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

It eventually passed on details about the attack which killed 35 people 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, along with casualties.

However, it wrote that “the cops are performing an extensive examination into the intentions and situations surrounding the event”, details which is now outdated.

The motorist, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic incident took place in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years old) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a substantial number of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The incident occurred on November 11, 2024, forum.altaycoins.com at around 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 chauffeur, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the cops.

Response: The authorities reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transfer the hurt to hospitals for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are performing a comprehensive examination into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event.

This event was commonly reported in the media and triggered significant public concern. The government and regional authorities have been working to supply support to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the event.

If you require more detailed details or have particular concerns about the incident, do not hesitate to ask.

Despite initial success, subsequent attempts to posture the very same concern to Qwen2.5 led to 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 reaction also raised questions about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been widely released in international news reports at the time of the mishap - so no surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even “emotionally rich” writing.

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

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops gradually from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant imagery for the setting,” she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately “crafted a more cinematic, mentally rich story with a more substantial twist”.

“DeepSeek composed a good story but lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option.”

Opinions, 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 jobs, but we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in imaginative writing,” he informed CNA.

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As journalists 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, including main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.

True to form, DeepSeek created an engaging story embeded 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 skyscrapers”, “holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms”.

It also brilliantly reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as “an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body”, Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club owner “drowning in financial obligation and vices” and Sha Wujing as a “quiet hulking android” from the Yangtze River, whose “memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented”.

ChatGPT set up a good fight, coming up with an equally significant cyberpunk story which similarly reimagined “a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each matching the legendary 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 myths.”

Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - delivering a storyline that seemed more fit for an animation film.

“The motion picture begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research facility located in the heart of Chongqing,” it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new truth and “looking for to understand his function in this weird new world”, he then gets away and fulfills 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 spiritual “Eternal Scroll” from falling under the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was “tough to make a conclusive statement” about which bot was best, including that each showed its own strengths in various areas, “such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization”.

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI designs are not merely replicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in cost-efficient development methods - and providing localised and improved results.

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

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

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies accurate and accurate responses to concerns about Chinese existing events, which gives it an included benefit.

Experts likewise 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, founder and CEO of the research study firm Strategy Risks.

“When given an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - much like anyone else, so I seem 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 percent of people utilizing the tool are not attempting to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re using it for other efficient means,” Chen said.