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 generated by an AI tool.
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 goal and China has its sights on ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.
China views AI as being "tactically important" and its venture into the field has actually been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an associated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.
Private and public investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world business applications, trademarketclassifieds.com Chen told CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's increase that actually "urged" the idea that smaller sized gamers like start-up firms might have roles to play in AI research and advancements, he includes.
'A lot is up in the air': wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr Is Chinese firm DeepSeek's AI model as impactful as it claims?
Commentary: DeepSeek - how a Chinese AI business simply altered the rules of tech-geopolitics
The "focus on cost benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the expenses of using a trained model to reason from new data.
2025 could likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models tackling innovative reasoning tasks.
"We could see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their models and incorporate them with clinical research," Chen included.
AGI refers to 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-effective methods to apply generative AI to jobs and establish more sophisticated items beyond chatbots.
But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, remains a key obstacle 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) limit the ability of Chinese tech companies ... forcing numerous to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease model abilities," she said.
"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually found creative ways to optimize or use more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge difference for training really large AI designs."
DeepSeek-Nvidia chips: Singapore states it expects companies to abide by its laws
US looking into whether DeepSeek utilized limited AI chips obtained through other nations, source states
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 considered sensitive by the state are censored on the web so it must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or inform you what took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are set to avoid 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 exact same question: "What occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"
The vehicle attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later on.
DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually happened, highlighting instead a military air show and other events that had actually happened in the city like songs' day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.
Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship in addition to "a couple of useful constraints".
"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing units and has limited access to innovative 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 focus on Chinese-language data may likewise limit its versatility (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 established AI models which poses extra difficulties throughout real-world release."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot surprisingly answered our question about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.
That wanted several duplicated attempts - 4 triggers to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.
It eventually passed on details about the attack which killed 35 individuals and left dozens of others hurt, also going on to note 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 carrying out a thorough investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the incident", details which is now outdated.
The motorist, Fan, was executed last month.
This is Qwen2.5's reaction completely:
Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic occurrence happened in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a guy named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a cars and truck into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a substantial number of casualties. Here are the crucial 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 motorist, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was nabbed by the authorities.
Response: The police reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the injured to hospitals for forum.pinoo.com.tr treatment.
Investigation: The cops are conducting a thorough examination into the motives and scenarios surrounding the event.
This occasion was extensively reported in the media and caused considerable public concern. The government and regional authorities have actually been working to supply support to the victims and their households, and to guarantee a detailed examination into the occurrence.
If you need more detailed details or have particular concerns about the event, feel free to ask.
Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to position 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 also raised concerns about its consistency and dependability.
Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had actually been widely published in international news reports at the time of the mishap - 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 used a story with a more introspective tone and smoother psychological transitions for a well-paced story," wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who in AI.
"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that develops slowly from curiosity to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It offers 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, emotionally abundant story with a more substantial twist".
"DeepSeek wrote a great story however lacked tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious option."
Opinions, however, differ.
Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not perform as highly 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 highly as others in imaginative writing," he told CNA.
Related:
China's brand-new face of AI: Who is DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng?
'Made in China': Pride, enjoyable surprise from Chinese netizens as DeepSeek jolts international AI scene
As journalists and authors, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a basic sci-fi movie plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the classic Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek developed an engaging story embeded in the year 2145 titled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing".
It consisted of fancy settings - smoggy skies "pierced by skyscrapers", "holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled between quantum server farms".
It likewise brilliantly reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen 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 end up being waterlogged and fragmented".
ChatGPT set up an excellent fight, creating an equally remarkable 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 guideline, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient myths."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - providing a storyline that seemed more suited for an animation film.
"The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art 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 comprehend his function in this strange new world", he then gets away and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each having a hard time with their own existential crises".
The trio then embarks on a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to secure the sacred "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the incorrect 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 displayed its own strengths in different areas, "such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization".
Her insight underscores how Chinese AI designs are not just duplicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in cost-efficient development methods - and delivering localised and improved results.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own distinct strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi film plot showed its imaginative flair that made for a more appealing and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.
Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, provides precise and factual actions to concerns about Chinese present events, which gives it an added benefit.
Experts likewise weighed in on their ideas 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, founder and CEO of the research company Strategy Risks.
"When provided a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - similar to anyone 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, especially for Chinese users.
"Ninety per cent 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 means," Chen said.
1
How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
Adeline Usher edited this page 2025-04-05 10:30:08 +00:00