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 created by an AI tool.
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 objective 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 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 sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed promises of real-world service applications, Chen told CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's rise that truly "urged" the concept that smaller players like start-up firms might have functions to play in AI research study and advancements, he adds.
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The "focus on cost benefit" is a distinctive function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning costs - the expenses of using a trained model to draw conclusions from new data.
2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI models taking on sophisticated thinking jobs.
"We could see some AI firms concentrating on getting closer to synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete ways to commercialise their designs and integrate them with scientific research," Chen included.
AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.
Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, experts say, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and wavedream.wiki affordable ways to use generative AI to jobs and wiki.dulovic.tech establish advanced items beyond chatbots.
But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's advanced AI chips, remains a key hurdle for Chinese designers, 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 capability of Chinese tech business ... requiring lots of to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease design capabilities," she said.
"While some companies like DeepSeek, have actually found innovative ways to enhance or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining advanced chips still makes a huge distinction for training extremely big AI models."
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So how do Chinese AI bots compare 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 ought to come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are configured 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 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 question: "What happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"
The cars and truck attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social media - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later on.
DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had happened, highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had actually happened in the city like songs' day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.
Dr Zhang thinks that it might be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship along with "a few useful constraints".
"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has actually limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can impact how quickly and thoroughly the design can be trained or updated," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information may also restrict its versatility (to perform) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the exact same scale as more recognized AI designs which presents extra difficulties during 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 repeated attempts - four prompts to be accurate - in a span of around 20 minutes.
It eventually passed on details about the attack which killed 35 people and left lots of others hurt, likewise 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 composed that "the authorities are carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the occurrence", details which is now outdated.
The chauffeur, Fan, was executed last month.
This is Qwen2.5's action in complete:
Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant 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 an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a significant number of casualties. Here are the essential details:
Date and Time: The incident occurred on November 11, 2024, at approximately 19:48 PM.
Location: archmageriseswiki.com Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.
Casualties: The attack resulted in 35 deaths and 43 injuries.
Perpetrator: The motorist, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was apprehended by the cops.
Response: The cops reacted rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to carry the injured to healthcare facilities for treatment.
Investigation: The authorities are conducting a thorough into the motives and wiki.dulovic.tech scenarios surrounding the event.
This event was widely reported in the media and triggered significant public issue. The government and regional authorities have actually been working to offer assistance to the victims and their families, and to ensure a detailed examination into the incident.
If you need more detailed details or have particular concerns about the event, feel free to ask.
Despite initial success, subsequent attempts to pose the very same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have particular details on occasions that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The transformed action also raised questions about its consistency and reliability.
Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been extensively released in international report at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.
WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?
Users have praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even "emotionally abundant" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 offered a story with a more reflective tone and smoother emotional transitions for a well-paced story," wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops slowly from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more substantial twist".
"DeepSeek composed a great story however lacked tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious choice."
Opinions, however, vary.
Chen believes 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, however we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative writing," he told CNA.
Related:
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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 film 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 came up with an engaging storyline embeded 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 in between quantum server farms".
It also brilliantly reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg nightclub owner "drowning in debt and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "quiet hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".
ChatGPT installed a great battle, creating a similarly remarkable cyberpunk story which likewise 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 replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as typical as ancient myths."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this difficulty - providing a storyline that seemed more fit for an animation movie.
"The movie begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research study center situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:
Realising his brand-new reality and "seeking to understand his function in this strange brand-new world", he then escapes and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each battling with their own existential crises".
The trio then starts a mission, navigating the streets of Chongqing to secure the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling under the wrong hands.
SO WHICH IS BETTER?
Dr Zhang noted that it was "challenging to make a definitive statement" about which bot was best, including that each showed its own strengths in various locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".
Her insight underscores how Chinese AI models are not just duplicating Western paradigms, however rather developing in cost-efficient innovation approaches - and providing localised and enhanced results.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own special strengths, which certainly made direct contrasts challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi motion picture plot showed its innovative flair that made for a more appealing and imaginative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.
Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies precise and accurate actions to questions about Chinese existing occasions, which provides it an included benefit.
Experts also weighed in on their ideas after using DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.
"DeepSeek is at a drawback when it pertains to censorship constraints," noted Isaac Stone Fish, founder and CEO of the research firm Strategy Risks.
"When provided an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored version - similar to anybody else, so I feel 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 using the tool are not attempting to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They're using it for other productive ways," Chen said.
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How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
emmanueledman edited this page 2025-05-28 00:20:42 +02:00