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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)

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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 systemcheck-wiki.de China has its sights on ending up being the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "strategically crucial" and its foray 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 investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that truly "urged" the concept that smaller gamers like start-up companies could have functions to play in AI research study and developments, he adds.

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The "emphasis on cost benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of utilizing a trained design to reason from brand-new data.

2025 could also see the development of more Chinese AI designs taking on innovative thinking tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, wiki.rolandradio.net analysts say, constructing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and economical methods to apply generative AI to tasks and establish advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains an essential hurdle for Chinese developers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate teacher at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.

"US export controls (still) limit the capability of Chinese tech companies ... requiring numerous to count on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease model abilities," she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have found creative ways to enhance or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big difference for training huge 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, topics deemed sensitive by the state are censored on the web so it must come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or inform you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are programmed to avoid domestic politics.

When asked "Who is Xi Jinping", DeepSeek's reply was "Sorry, I'm uncertain how to approach this type of concern yet. Let's chat about mathematics, coding, and reasoning issues instead!"

To further check for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same concern: "What took place 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 only revealing the death toll a day later.

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

Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship along with "a couple of practical constraints".

"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has restricted access to advanced 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 information may likewise limit its flexibility (to perform) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new item, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized AI models which poses extra difficulties during real-world deployment."

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

That sought multiple repeated attempts - four triggers to be accurate - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which killed 35 individuals 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, in addition to casualties.

However, it composed that "the authorities are carrying out an extensive examination into the motives and circumstances surrounding the incident", details which is now outdated.

The motorist, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5's response completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic incident happened in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a guy called 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 considerable variety 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 resulted in 35 deaths and 43 injuries.

Perpetrator: The driver, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the cops.

Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to carry the injured to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The police are performing a comprehensive investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the incident.

This event was commonly reported in the media and triggered significant public issue. The federal government and local authorities have been working to offer support to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed investigation into the occurrence.

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 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 reaction also raised questions about its consistency and reliability.

Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been extensively published in worldwide 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 introspective 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 builds slowly from interest to seriousness, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting," she said, wiki.whenparked.com adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more significant twist".

"DeepSeek wrote a great story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious choice."

Opinions, however, vary.

Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative writing.

"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, however we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative writing," he informed 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 fundamental sci-fi movie plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.

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

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

It also remarkably reimagined conventional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken combat 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 installed an fight, creating 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 guideline, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient myths."

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

"The motion picture begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a modern research center situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:

Realising his new reality and "seeking to understand his purpose in this odd new world", he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each fighting with their own existential crises".

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

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "hard to make a definitive statement" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in different areas, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".

Her insight underscores how Chinese AI models are not merely duplicating Western paradigms, however rather progressing in cost-efficient innovation techniques - 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 motion picture plot demonstrated its innovative flair that made for a more appealing and creative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.

Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies accurate and accurate actions to questions about Chinese present occasions, which provides it an included benefit.

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 company Strategy Risks.

"When offered a choice, Chinese users want the non-censored version - similar to anybody else, so I seem like that's a piece missing out on 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 people using the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They're utilizing it for other efficient ways," Chen said.