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)

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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 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 foray into the field has actually been “years in the making”, said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated 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 pledges of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek’s increase that truly “encouraged” the concept that smaller players like start-up companies might have functions to play in AI research and advancements, he includes.

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The “focus on expense benefit” is a distinct feature of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the expenses of utilizing a trained design to reason from new information.

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

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

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

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts say, developing on DeepSeek’s momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-efficient methods to apply generative AI to tasks and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other hand, 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) restrict the ability of Chinese tech business … requiring lots of to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower design abilities,” she said.

“While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered innovative ways to optimize or use more fundamental hardware effectively, obtaining innovative 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 considered sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it ought to come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or inform you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set to guide 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 math, coding, and reasoning issues rather!”

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

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

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

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship in addition to “a couple of useful constraints”.

“DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has limited access to cutting-edge 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 concentrate on Chinese-language information may likewise limit its flexibility (to perform) multilingual tasks … As a fairly new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn’t yet been evaluated as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI models which presents additional obstacles throughout real-world implementation.”

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba’s chatbot remarkably answered our question about the Zhuhai car attack.

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

It eventually relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left lots of others hurt, 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 police are performing an extensive investigation into the motives and circumstances surrounding the occurrence”, details which is now obsoleted.

The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5’s action in full:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, systemcheck-wiki.de a major and terrible occurrence took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a male named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial number of casualties. Here are the essential details:

Date and Time: The incident 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, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was collared by the police.

Response: The authorities reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the hurt to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The police are conducting an extensive investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the occurrence.

This event was extensively reported in the media and caused substantial public concern. The federal government and local authorities have been working to supply assistance to the victims and their families, and to guarantee a detailed examination into the incident.

If you require more detailed details or have particular concerns about the event, feel free to ask.

Despite initial success, subsequent attempts to pose the exact same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply “I don’t have specific details on occasions that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024”.

The transformed response likewise raised questions about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been commonly published in international news reports at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.

WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?

Users have 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 transitions for a well-paced story,” composed tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.

“Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops slowly from interest to seriousness, 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 abundant story with a more significant twist”.

“DeepSeek composed an excellent story but did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the apparent choice.”

Opinions, bytes-the-dust.com though, vary.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to innovative writing.

”(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain tasks, but we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in creative writing,” he told CNA.

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As reporters and writers, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi motion picture 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 came up with an interesting story set in the year 2145 entitled, “Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra” - which sees “a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing”.

It included intricate settings - smoggy skies “pierced by high-rise buildings”, “holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets” and “ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms”.

It also brilliantly 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 “silent hulking android” from the Yangtze River, whose “memory cores end up being 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 mirroring the legendary 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 myths.”

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

“The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern 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 purpose in this odd brand-new world”, he then leaves and meets 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 secure the spiritual “Eternal Scroll” from falling into the wrong hands.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

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

Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not simply duplicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in cost-efficient development techniques - and delivering 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 showed its innovative flair that made for a more interesting and creative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT’s efforts.

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

Experts likewise weighed in on their ideas after utilizing DeepSeek and systemcheck-wiki.de other Chinese AI apps.

“DeepSeek is at a downside when it pertains to censorship constraints,” kept in mind Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research study firm Strategy Risks.

“When given a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - just 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, particularly for Chinese users.

“Ninety percent of individuals utilizing the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They’re utilizing it for other productive methods,” Chen said.