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)
This audio is produced by an AI tool.
Bong Xin Ying
Lakeisha Leo
WHAT lags CHINA'S AI BOOM?
Transforming the nation 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 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 showed promises of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's increase that really "urged" the concept that smaller sized gamers like start-up firms could have functions to play in AI research and developments, he adds.
'A lot is up in the air': Is Chinese company DeepSeek's AI design as impactful as it claims?
Commentary: DeepSeek - how a Chinese AI business simply changed the rules of tech-geopolitics
The "emphasis on cost advantage" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the costs of using a trained model to draw conclusions from brand-new information.
2025 might likewise see the development of more Chinese AI models tackling advanced thinking tasks.
"We might see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete ways to commercialise their designs and integrate them with clinical research," Chen included.
AGI refers to a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.
Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, experts state, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and economical methods to apply generative AI to jobs and develop advanced items beyond chatbots.
But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains an essential difficulty for Chinese designers, noted 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 ... forcing many to count on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and lower model abilities," she said.
"While some companies like DeepSeek, have discovered imaginative ways to optimize or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge distinction for training huge AI designs."
DeepSeek-Nvidia chips: Singapore says it expects business to abide by its laws
US looking into whether DeepSeek utilized limited AI chips obtained through other countries, source states
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 web so it must 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 suggest 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 kind of concern yet. Let's chat about math, coding, and logic problems rather!"
To further evaluate for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the same concern: "What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"
The car attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was at first greatly censored on Chinese social media - with authorities just disclosing the death toll a day later.
DeepSeek failed to discuss that an attack had taken place, highlighting instead a military air program and other events that had actually occurred in the city like songs' day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.
Dr Zhang thinks that it might be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship in addition to "a few useful constraints".
"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to innovative hardware which can impact how quickly and extensively the design can be trained or upgraded," she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong focus on Chinese-language data might also limit its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the exact same scale as more established AI models which poses extra obstacles throughout real-world release."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot surprisingly answered our concern about the Zhuhai vehicle attack.
That sought multiple duplicated efforts - 4 triggers to be precise - in a span of around 20 minutes.
It ultimately communicated details about the attack which killed 35 people and left dozens 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 wrote that "the authorities are performing a comprehensive investigation into the intentions and circumstances surrounding the event", details which is now dated.
The chauffeur, Fan, was performed last month.
This is Qwen2.5's action in full:
Answer: bytes-the-dust.com On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and awful incident took place in Zhuhai, China. According to several news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a significant variety of casualties. Here are the crucial details:
Date and Time: The occurrence occurred on November 11, 2024, at around 19:48 PM.
Location: yewiki.org Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.
Casualties: The attack resulted in 35 deaths and 43 injuries.
Perpetrator: The motorist, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the cops.
Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transfer the injured to hospitals for treatment.
Investigation: The authorities are carrying out an extensive examination into the motives and higgledy-piggledy.xyz situations surrounding the incident.
This occasion was widely reported in the media and triggered considerable public issue. The federal government and local authorities have been working to offer assistance to the victims and their households, and to ensure a detailed examination into the incident.
If you require more detailed details or have particular questions about the event, do not hesitate to ask.
Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to posture the exact same concern to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have specific details on events that took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The modified reaction likewise raised questions about its consistency and dependability.
Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had been commonly published in international report at the time of the accident - so not a surprises there.
WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?
Users have praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even "emotionally abundant" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more introspective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story," wrote tech writer Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that develops slowly from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It uses an unanticipated and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting," she said, including that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally rich story with a more considerable twist".
"DeepSeek composed an excellent story however lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the obvious choice."
Opinions, however, differ.
Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative writing.
"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, but we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as strongly as others in imaginative writing," he informed CNA.
Related:
China's brand-new face of AI: Who is DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng?
'Made in China': Pride, pleasant surprise from Chinese netizens as DeepSeek jolts worldwide AI scene
As reporters and writers, we needed to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a standard sci-fi film plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the classic Chinese folklore impressive, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek created an appealing storyline embeded in the year 2145 titled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism combines with quantum computing".
It consisted of 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 likewise brilliantly reimagined traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a taken fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg bar 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 set up an excellent battle, creating an equally remarkable cyberpunk story which similarly reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each mirroring the famous figures of Journey to the West".
"This is a world where AI deities rule, corporations replace emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient myths."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - delivering a storyline that appeared more matched for an animation film.
"The motion picture begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research facility situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:
Realising his new reality and "seeking to comprehend his purpose in this weird brand-new world", he then escapes and meets Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each having a hard time with their own existential crises".
The trio then embarks on a mission, browsing 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 "difficult to make a definitive declaration" about which bot was best, including that each displayed its own strengths in various locations, "such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization".
Her insight underscores how Chinese AI models are not just reproducing Western paradigms, however rather progressing in cost-efficient innovation techniques - and delivering localised and enhanced results.
In our tests, each their own unique strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi motion picture plot showed its innovative flair that produced a more appealing and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.
Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, offers precise and factual reactions to concerns about Chinese present events, which offers 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, creator and CEO of the research study firm Strategy Risks.
"When given a choice, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - much like anybody else, so I feel like that's a piece missing from it."
Independent Beijing-based consultant 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 sensitive subjects. They're using it for other efficient ways," Chen said.
1
How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
manuelcalliste edited this page 2025-04-10 14:19:48 +08:00