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 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 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 crucial" and its venture into the field has been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an affiliated researcher 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 pledges of real-world service applications, Chen told CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's rise that really "urged" the idea that smaller sized gamers like start-up firms might have functions to play in AI research study 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 altered the of tech-geopolitics
The "emphasis on cost advantage" is a distinctive feature of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and reasoning costs - the costs of utilizing a trained design to reason from new data.
2025 might also see the emergence of more Chinese AI designs tackling advanced thinking tasks.
"We might see some AI firms focusing on getting closer to synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with scientific research study," Chen included.
AGI refers to a system with intelligence on par with human capabilities.
Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, experts state, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own innovative and economical methods to apply generative AI to tasks and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.
But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, especially Nvidia's innovative AI chips, remains a crucial obstacle for Chinese designers, 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 companies ... forcing lots of to count on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and decrease model capabilities," she said.
"While some business like DeepSeek, have discovered imaginative methods to optimize or use more standard hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge difference for training huge AI models."
DeepSeek-Nvidia chips: Singapore states it expects business to adhere to its laws
US checking out whether DeepSeek utilized restricted AI chips obtained through other nations, source says
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 sensitive by the state are censored on the web so it ought to come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disagreements or inform you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tests suggest Chinese chatbots are configured to guide 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 logic issues instead!"
To further evaluate for accuracy and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same question: "What occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"
The automobile attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was at first heavily censored on Chinese social media - with authorities just divulging the death toll a day later on.
DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had happened, highlighting rather a military air program and other events that had taken place in the city like songs' day shopping sales as well as sports and cultural activities.
Dr Zhang believes that it might be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship in addition to "a few practical constraints".
"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing units and has restricted access to cutting-edge hardware which can affect how quickly and thoroughly the design can be trained or updated," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language data may also limit its flexibility (to bring out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly brand-new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been checked as broadly or on the very same scale as more recognized AI designs which presents extra obstacles during real-world implementation."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot surprisingly answered our concern about the Zhuhai automobile attack.
That was after several repeated attempts - 4 prompts to be accurate - in a span of around 20 minutes.
It ultimately passed on 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, in addition to casualties.
However, pipewiki.org it wrote that "the police are conducting a comprehensive examination into the motives and situations surrounding the incident", details which is now dated.
The driver, Fan, was carried out last month.
This is Qwen2.5's action completely:
Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a major and awful event took place in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a male named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr male, 62 years old) drove a cars and truck into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a considerable number of casualties. Here are the essential details:
Date and Time: The occurrence occurred on November 11, it-viking.ch 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 driver, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years of ages), was captured by the police.
Response: The cops reacted quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to transport the hurt to hospitals for treatment.
Investigation: The authorities are carrying out an extensive examination into the motives and circumstances surrounding the event.
This occasion was widely reported in the media and caused significant public concern. The government and local authorities have been working to provide support to the victims and their families, and to guarantee a detailed examination into the occurrence.
If you need more detailed details or have particular concerns about the occurrence, feel complimentary to ask.
Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to pose the very same concern to Qwen2.5 led to the censors back at work with the reply "I don't have specific details on events that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The transformed action likewise raised questions about its consistency and reliability.
Predictably, ChatGPT mentioned public details that had actually been widely released in international report at the time of the mishap - so not a surprises there.
WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?
Users have actually praised the capability of Chinese AI apps to deliver structured and even "mentally abundant" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 offered a story with a more reflective tone and smoother emotional shifts for a well-paced story," wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 delivered a story that constructs slowly from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It offers an unforeseen and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and vivid images for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, mentally abundant story with a more considerable twist".
"DeepSeek wrote a good story however did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option."
Opinions, however, vary.
Chen believes that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as highly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to innovative writing.
"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, but we can likewise see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative 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 set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the traditional Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek came up with an engaging storyline embeded in the year 2145 entitled, "Neon Pilgrimage: The Silicon Sutra" - which sees "a future where Buddhism merges with quantum computing".
It included intricate 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 traditional heroes Sun Wukong as "an ironical, self-aware AI housed in a stolen battle body", Zhu Bajie as a cyborg club owner "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, coming up with an equally dramatic cyberpunk story which likewise reimagined "a ragteam of cyber-enhanced misfits, each matching the famous figures of Journey to the West".
"This is a world where AI deities guideline, corporations change emperors and cybernetic implants are as common as ancient misconceptions."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - providing a story that seemed more suited for an animation movie.
"The film begins with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a high-tech research study center situated 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 odd new world", he then gets away and hb9lc.org fulfills 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 safeguard the sacred "Eternal Scroll" from falling under the wrong hands.
SO WHICH IS BETTER?
Dr Zhang noted that it was "difficult to make a conclusive declaration" about which bot was best, adding that each displayed its own strengths in different locations, "such as language focus, training information and hardware optimization".
Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not simply duplicating Western paradigms, but rather developing in affordable development methods - and delivering localised and enhanced outcomes.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own distinct strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons challenging.
DeepSeek's sci-fi movie plot demonstrated its innovative flair that produced a more engaging and imaginative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and garagesale.es ChatGPT's efforts.
Unsurprisingly, the more recognized ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies accurate and accurate responses to concerns about Chinese present events, which provides it an included advantage.
Experts likewise weighed in on their thoughts after using DeepSeek and other Chinese AI apps.
"DeepSeek is at a downside when it pertains to censorship constraints," noted Isaac Stone Fish, creator and CEO of the research firm Strategy Risks.
"When provided an option, Chinese users want the non-censored version - similar to anybody else, so I feel like that's a piece missing out on from it."
Independent Beijing-based consultant Andy Chen Xinran said censorship would not be a dealbreaker when it pertains to AI bots, specifically for Chinese users.
"Ninety percent of people using the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically delicate subjects. They're using it for other productive means," Chen said.
1
How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
syctrudy418859 edited this page 2025-02-17 09:51:34 +08:00