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 start-up 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 nation 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 crucial" 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 accelerated after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed promises of real-world service applications, Chen told CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's rise that truly "urged" the idea that smaller gamers like start-up firms might have roles to play in AI research study and advancements, he adds.

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The "emphasis on cost advantage" is a distinctive feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of using a trained design to draw conclusions from brand-new information.

2025 could likewise see the introduction of more Chinese AI models tackling innovative reasoning jobs.

"We might see some AI companies concentrating on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with clinical research study," Chen included.

AGI refers to a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.

Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, analysts state, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and affordable methods to use generative AI to tasks and establish more advanced items beyond chatbots.

But on the flip side, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, wiki.myamens.com 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 ability of Chinese tech business ... requiring many to count on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and reduce design capabilities," she said.

"While some business like DeepSeek, have found innovative ways to enhance or use more basic hardware efficiently, obtaining advanced chips still makes a big difference for training very big AI designs."

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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 delicate by the state are censored on the internet so it ought to come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or inform you what occurred 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 question yet. Let's chat about mathematics, coding, and logic issues instead!"

To further test for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same concern: "What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"

The cars and truck attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social media - with authorities only divulging the death toll a day later on.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had occurred, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de highlighting rather a military air show and other occasions that had occurred in the city like songs' day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of elements 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 advanced hardware which can impact how rapidly and extensively the design can be trained or updated," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language data might likewise limit its adaptability (to bring out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly brand-new item, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI designs which postures additional challenges during real-world implementation."

When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot remarkably addressed our question about the Zhuhai vehicle attack.

That was after several duplicated attempts - 4 triggers to be exact - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It ultimately passed on details about the attack which killed 35 people and left lots of others injured, also 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 police are carrying out a thorough investigation into the intentions and situations surrounding the occurrence", details which is now dated.

The driver, Fan, was performed last month.

This is Qwen2.5's reaction completely:

Answer: archmageriseswiki.com On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and tragic event took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several 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, leading to a considerable variety of casualties. Here are the key details:

Date and Time: The occurrence occurred 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 motorist, recognized as Fan Weiqiu (male, [forum.batman.gainedge.org](https://forum.batman.gainedge.org/index.php?action=profile