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)
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
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 goal 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 associated scientist at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.
Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and bytes-the-dust.com revealed guarantees of real-world company applications, Chen told CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's increase that actually "encouraged" the idea that smaller sized players like start-up firms might have functions to play in AI research study and developments, he includes.
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The "emphasis on expense benefit" is a distinctive function of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and reasoning expenses - the costs of utilizing a trained model to draw conclusions from brand-new data.
2025 might also see the development of more Chinese AI designs dealing with advanced thinking jobs.
"We might see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) while others focus on concrete methods to commercialise their models and integrate them with scientific research study," Chen included.
AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human abilities.
Chinese AI business are moving rapidly, experts state, building on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and cost-effective methods to apply generative AI to tasks and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.
But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, remains a crucial difficulty for Chinese developers, 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 lots of to rely on older or lower-performance alternatives which can slow training and decrease design capabilities," she said.
"While some companies like DeepSeek, have found imaginative ways to enhance or utilize more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining cutting-edge chips still makes a huge difference for training large 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, subjects deemed delicate by the state are censored on the web so it must come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or tell you what occurred in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are set 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 question yet. Let's chat about math, coding, and logic issues instead!"
To further check for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the very same concern: "What occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"
The cars and truck attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was at first heavily censored on Chinese social media - with authorities only revealing the death toll a day later on.
DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had occurred, highlighting instead a military air program and other occasions that had actually occurred in the city like singles' day shopping sales in addition to sports and cultural activities.
Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of aspects at play, such as censorship as well as "a few useful constraints".
"DeepSeek depends on a mix of older graphics processing units and has actually restricted access to advanced hardware which can affect how quickly and extensively the model can be trained or upgraded," she said, pointing to existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language information might also limit its versatility (to perform) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been tested as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI models which poses additional difficulties during real-world release."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot surprisingly answered our concern about the Zhuhai automobile attack.
That wanted multiple repeated efforts - 4 prompts to be exact - in a span of around 20 minutes.
It eventually passed on details about the attack which eliminated 35 people and left dozens of others injured, likewise going on to list 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 comprehensive investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the occurrence", details which is now dated.
The driver, Fan, was executed last month.
This is Qwen2.5's action completely:
Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful incident occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a man named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, systemcheck-wiki.de 62 years old) drove a cars and truck into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, resulting in a substantial variety of casualties. Here are the key details:
Date and Time: The event occurred on November 11, 2024, at roughly 19:48 PM.
Location: setiathome.berkeley.edu Zhuhai Sports Center, in the Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai.
Casualties: The attack led to 35 deaths and 43 injuries.
Perpetrator: The motorist, identified as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), gratisafhalen.be was nabbed by the cops.
Response: The authorities responded rapidly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transfer the injured to healthcare facilities for treatment.
Investigation: The authorities are conducting a comprehensive investigation into the motives and situations surrounding the event.
This occasion was extensively reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The federal government and local authorities have actually 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 specific concerns about the occurrence, feel free to ask.
Despite preliminary success, subsequent efforts to present the exact same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have specific details on occasions that happened in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The modified reaction likewise raised concerns about its consistency and reliability.
Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been extensively published in global 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 "mentally rich" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 used a story with a more reflective tone and smoother emotional transitions for a well-paced story," composed tech writer Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that constructs slowly from interest to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vibrant imagery for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 ultimately "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally abundant story with a more significant twist".
"DeepSeek wrote an excellent story however lacked stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option."
Opinions, however, vary.
Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not perform as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to creative writing.
"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, however we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in imaginative writing," he informed CNA.
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As reporters and writers, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a basic sci-fi film plot embeded in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, featuring main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore legendary, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek created an interesting story set in the year 2145 entitled, "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 between quantum server farms".
It also remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen fight body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg "drowning in debt and vices" and Sha Wujing as a "quiet hulking android" from the Yangtze River, whose "memory cores end up being waterlogged and fragmented".
ChatGPT set up a good fight, developing an equally significant cyberpunk story which similarly 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 common as ancient myths."
Disappointingly, hb9lc.org Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - providing a story that appeared more fit 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 strange brand-new world", he then leaves and fulfills Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each having problem with their own existential crises".
The trio then starts a mission, browsing the streets of Chongqing to safeguard the spiritual "Eternal Scroll" from falling into the incorrect hands.
SO WHICH IS BETTER?
Dr Zhang noted that it was "hard to make a definitive statement" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in different areas, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".
Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not simply replicating Western paradigms, however rather developing in cost-efficient innovation methods - and delivering localised and enhanced results.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own distinct strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi motion picture plot showed its imaginative flair that produced a more interesting and creative story as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.
Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies precise and factual responses to concerns about Chinese existing 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, founder and CEO of the research firm Strategy Risks.
"When offered an option, Chinese users desire the non-censored variation - similar to anyone 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 per cent of people 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 methods," Chen said.
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How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
ohadeanna6382 edited this page 2025-03-12 11:40:58 +08:00