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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 startup DeepSeek and OpenAI's ChatGPT. (Photos: Reuters/Dado Ruvic, AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

This audio is created by an AI tool.

Bong Xin Ying

Lakeisha Leo

WHAT lags 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 becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

China views AI as being "tactically important" and its venture into the field has been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an associated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for surgiteams.com China Analysis.

Private and public financial investments in Chinese AI accelerated after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world company applications, Chen informed 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 and developments, he includes.

'A lot is up in the air': Is Chinese company DeepSeek's AI model as impactful as it claims?

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The "focus on expense benefit" is a distinct feature of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference expenses - the costs of using a trained design to reason from new data.

2025 might likewise see the development of more Chinese AI designs tackling sophisticated thinking tasks.

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

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

Chinese AI are moving rapidly, analysts say, developing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and affordable ways to apply generative AI to jobs and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.

But on the other side, access to high-end hardware, particularly 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 companies ... forcing numerous to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and minimize design capabilities," she said.

"While some companies like DeepSeek, have found imaginative methods to optimize or utilize more basic hardware effectively, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge difference for training huge 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 sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it should come as no surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial disputes or tell you what took place 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 kind of concern yet. Let's chat about mathematics, coding, and logic issues rather!"

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

The vehicle attack outside a sports stadium in the southern Chinese city was initially heavily censored on Chinese social media - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later.

DeepSeek failed to point out that an attack had occurred, highlighting rather a military air program and other events that had actually taken place in the city like singles' day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.

Dr Zhang thinks that it may be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship along with "a few useful constraints".

"DeepSeek counts on a mix of older graphics processing units and has actually restricted access to innovative hardware which can impact how quickly and thoroughly the design can be trained or upgraded," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.

"Its strong focus on Chinese-language information may also restrict its flexibility (to carry out) multilingual jobs ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek likewise hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI models which positions additional difficulties during real-world deployment."

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

That sought multiple repeated efforts - 4 triggers to be accurate - in a span of around 20 minutes.

It eventually communicated details about the attack which killed 35 individuals and left lots of others hurt, also 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 composed that "the cops are carrying out an extensive investigation into the motives and circumstances surrounding the event", details which is now dated.

The driver, Fan, was carried out last month.

This is Qwen2.5's reaction completely:

Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and terrible occurrence occurred in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a male named Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove a vehicle into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a significant variety of casualties. Here are the essential details:

Date and Time: The occurrence occurred on November 11, 2024, at approximately 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 chauffeur, determined as Fan Weiqiu (male, 62 years old), was captured by the police.

Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency situation services worked to transport the injured to medical facilities for treatment.

Investigation: The authorities are performing a thorough examination into the motives and [forum.batman.gainedge.org](https://forum.batman.gainedge.org/index.php?action=profile