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 produced by an AI tool.
Bong Xin Ying
Lakeisha Leo
WHAT'S BEHIND CHINA'S AI BOOM?
Transforming the country into a tech superpower has long been President Xi Jinping's objective and China has its sights on becoming 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 associated scientist at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.
Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and showed guarantees of real-world business applications, Chen informed CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's increase that actually "urged" the concept that smaller sized players like start-up firms could have functions to play in AI research and advancements, he includes.
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The "focus on expense benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the costs of using a trained model to reason from brand-new data.
2025 might likewise see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs tackling sophisticated thinking jobs.
"We might see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with clinical research study," Chen included.
AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.
Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, experts say, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-efficient methods to apply generative AI to jobs and establish more innovative items beyond chatbots.
But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's advanced AI chips, remains an essential obstacle for Chinese developers, noted Dr Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Australia-China Relations Institute.
"US export controls (still) limit the capability of Chinese tech companies ... requiring many to rely on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower design capabilities," she said.
"While some business like DeepSeek, have actually discovered innovative ways to enhance or utilize more standard hardware effectively, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a big 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 should 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 configured to steer clear of 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 rather!"
To even more test for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same concern: "What occurred 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 only divulging the death toll a day later on.
DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had taken place, highlighting rather a military air show and other events that had happened 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 factors at play, such as censorship in addition to "a few useful constraints".
"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has actually restricted access to cutting-edge hardware which can impact how quickly and thoroughly the design can be trained or upgraded," she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data may also restrict its versatility (to bring out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been checked as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI models which presents extra difficulties during real-world release."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot surprisingly answered our question about the Zhuhai car attack.
That wanted multiple repeated attempts - four prompts to be precise - in a span of around 20 minutes.
It ultimately passed on details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left dozens of others injured, also 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 a comprehensive investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the incident", details which is now obsoleted.
The motorist, Fan, was carried out last month.
This is Qwen2.5's reaction completely:
Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and tragic event happened in Zhuhai, China. According to multiple news sources, a man called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove an automobile 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 happened on November 11, 2024, genbecle.com at around 19:48 PM.
Location: Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.
Casualties: wakewiki.de The attack resulted in 35 deaths and 43 injuries.
Perpetrator: The motorist, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was collared by the police.
Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to carry the injured to health centers for treatment.
Investigation: The authorities are carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence.
This occasion was extensively reported in the media and triggered considerable public issue. The federal government and local authorities have actually been working to provide support to the victims and their households, and to guarantee a detailed examination into the event.
If you require more detailed details or have particular concerns about the incident, do not hesitate to ask.
Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to pose the exact same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have particular details on events that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The transformed response also raised questions about its consistency and reliability.
Predictably, ChatGPT pointed out public details that had actually been commonly published in global 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 "mentally rich" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more introspective tone and smoother emotional transitions for a well-paced story," wrote tech writer Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 provided a story that constructs slowly from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant imagery for the setting," she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, mentally abundant story with a more significant twist".
"DeepSeek composed an excellent story however did not have tension and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious choice."
Opinions, however, differ.
Chen thinks 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 tasks, however we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative writing," he told 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 fundamental plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek created an interesting storyline set in the year 2145 titled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing".
It included fancy settings - smoggy skies "pierced by high-rise buildings", "holographic lanterns that drift above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".
It likewise remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a stolen combat body", pipewiki.org Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar owner "drowning in debt and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "silent hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores become waterlogged and fragmented".
ChatGPT put up a great fight, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de creating an equally dramatic cyberpunk storyline which likewise 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 typical as ancient myths."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this obstacle - providing a story that appeared more matched for an animation movie.
"The film starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research study center 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 brand-new world", he then leaves and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each battling with their own existential crises".
The trio then embarks on a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to protect the sacred "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the wrong hands.
SO WHICH IS BETTER?
Dr Zhang kept in mind that it was "hard to make a definitive declaration" about which bot was best, adding that each displayed its own strengths in different locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".
Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not just reproducing Western paradigms, but rather evolving in economical innovation techniques - and delivering localised and improved outcomes.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own unique strengths, which certainly made direct contrasts challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi film plot demonstrated its innovative flair that produced a more appealing and creative story 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, pipewiki.org which provides it an included benefit.
Experts also weighed in on their thoughts after utilizing 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 study firm Strategy Risks.
"When provided an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - much like anyone else, so I seem 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 using the tool are not attempting to get a deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate topics. They're using it for other productive ways," Chen said.
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How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
olatruchanas81 edited this page 2025-02-27 09:38:43 +01:00