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 video 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'S BEHIND CHINA'S AI BOOM?

Transforming the country into a tech superpower has actually 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 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 financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed promises of real-world business applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that really "encouraged" the idea 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 an unique function of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the costs of using a trained model to draw conclusions from new data.

2025 might also see the introduction of more Chinese AI models tackling sophisticated thinking tasks.

"We could see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their models and incorporate them with clinical research study," Chen added.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, experts state, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-efficient ways to use generative AI to tasks and establish more advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, especially 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) restrict the capability of Chinese tech business ... requiring numerous to count on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and reduce model abilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered imaginative methods to enhance or use more basic hardware efficiently, obtaining cutting-edge 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, topics deemed delicate by the state are censored on the web so it must 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 avoid 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 further 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 vehicle attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first heavily censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities only disclosing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had actually taken place, highlighting instead a military air program and other events that had taken place in the city like singles' day shopping sales as well as sports and links.gtanet.com.br cultural activities.

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

"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has actually limited access to cutting-edge hardware which can impact how quickly and extensively the design can be trained or upgraded," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information may also limit its versatility (to carry 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 positions additional challenges during real-world release."

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot remarkably addressed our concern about the Zhuhai cars and truck attack.

That wanted multiple duplicated efforts - 4 triggers to be precise - in a period of around 20 minutes.

It eventually relayed details about the attack which eliminated 35 individuals and left dozens of others injured, likewise going on to note details like the date and time, details about the assailant including his name and age, along with casualties.

However, it composed that "the authorities are performing a comprehensive investigation into the motives and scenarios surrounding the incident", [forum.batman.gainedge.org](https://forum.batman.gainedge.org/index.php?action=profile