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 nation into a tech superpower has long been President Xi Jinping's goal and China has its sights on becoming 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 sped up after ChatGPT took off in 2022 and revealed guarantees of real-world company applications, Chen informed CNA.
But it was DeepSeek's rise that truly "urged" the idea that smaller players like start-up companies could have roles to play in AI research study and advancements, he adds.
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The "focus on expense benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen says, with lower training and inference costs - the expenses of utilizing a trained model to reason from brand-new information.
2025 might also see the development of more Chinese AI designs taking on innovative thinking jobs.
"We might see some AI firms concentrating on getting closer to artificial basic intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and integrate them with scientific research," Chen included.
AGI describes a system with intelligence on par with human capabilities.
Chinese AI companies are moving quickly, analysts say, constructing on DeepSeek's momentum to come up with their own ingenious and cost-effective methods to use generative AI to jobs and establish advanced products beyond chatbots.
But on the other hand, access to high-end hardware, particularly Nvidia's sophisticated AI chips, remains a crucial 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) restrict the ability of Chinese tech companies ... forcing numerous to depend on older or lower-performance options which can slow training and lower design abilities," she said.
"While some business like DeepSeek, have found innovative ways to enhance or utilize more basic hardware efficiently, obtaining innovative chips still makes a huge difference for training huge 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 sensitive by the state are censored on the internet so it should come as not a surprise that Chinese-made chatbots will not acknowledge territorial conflicts or forum.altaycoins.com tell you what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tests recommend Chinese chatbots are programmed to stay away from 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 problems instead!"
To further test for precision and self-censorship, we asked DeepSeek-R1, Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT the exact same concern: "What took place in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024?"
The car attack outside a sports arena in the southern Chinese city was initially greatly censored on Chinese social networks - with authorities just revealing the death toll a day later.
DeepSeek failed to mention that an attack had taken place, highlighting instead a military air show and other events that had happened in the city like songs' day shopping sales along with sports and cultural activities.
Dr Zhang believes that it may be a mix of factors at play, such as censorship as well as "a couple of useful constraints".
"DeepSeek relies on a mix of older graphics processing systems and has limited access to advanced hardware which can impact how rapidly and thoroughly the model can be trained or updated," she said, indicating existing US export curbs on China.
"Its strong concentrate on Chinese-language data might likewise restrict its versatility (to carry out) multilingual tasks ... As a fairly new product, DeepSeek also hasn't yet been evaluated as broadly or on the same scale as more recognized AI designs which presents additional challenges during real-world release."
When it pertained to Qwen2.5, Alibaba's chatbot surprisingly addressed our question about the Zhuhai car attack.
That sought multiple duplicated efforts - four triggers to be exact - in a span of around 20 minutes.
It eventually passed on 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, as well as casualties.
However, it wrote that "the police are carrying out a thorough investigation into the intentions and scenarios surrounding the event", details which is now outdated.
The driver, Fan, was carried out last month.
This is Qwen2.5's reaction in full:
Answer: On Nov 11, 2024, a significant and awful event took place in Zhuhai, China. According to numerous news sources, a male called Fan Weiqiu (樊某, male, 62 years of ages) drove an automobile into a crowd at the Zhuhai Sports Center, leading to a substantial variety of casualties. Here are the key details:
Date and Time: The event took place on November 11, 2024, at roughly 19:48 PM.
Location: 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), was collared by the authorities.
Response: The authorities responded quickly to the scene, and emergency services worked to carry the injured to hospitals for treatment.
Investigation: The cops are conducting a thorough examination into the motives and situations surrounding the occurrence.
This occasion was commonly reported in the media and triggered substantial public issue. The federal government and local authorities have actually been working to supply support to the victims and their families, and to make sure a detailed investigation into the occurrence.
If you need more detailed details or have specific concerns about the occurrence, do not hesitate to ask.
Despite preliminary success, subsequent attempts to posture the same question to Qwen2.5 resulted in the censors back at work with the reply "I do not have particular details on events that occurred in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024".
The modified response also raised concerns about its consistency and archmageriseswiki.com reliability.
Predictably, ChatGPT cited public details that had been commonly released in international news reports at the time of the accident - so not a surprises there.
WHICH IS MORE CREATIVE?
Users have actually praised the ability of Chinese AI apps to provide structured and even "mentally abundant" writing.
"DeepSeek-R1 provided a story with a more introspective tone and smoother emotional transitions for a well-paced story," wrote tech author Amanda Caswell, who specialises in AI.
"Qwen2.5 provided a story that develops gradually from curiosity to urgency, keeping the reader engaged. It provides an unexpected and impactful twist at the end and immersive descriptions and brilliant images for the setting," she said, adding that Qwen2.5 eventually "crafted a more cinematic, emotionally abundant story with a more significant twist".
"DeepSeek wrote a good story however did not have stress and an impactful climax, making Qwen2.5 the evident option."
Opinions, however, differ.
Chen thinks that Qwen2.5 does not carry out as strongly as DeepSeek and ChatGPT when it pertains to imaginative writing.
"(Qwen2.5) is on par with DeepSeek V3 on certain jobs, however we can also see that it is refraining from doing as highly as others in innovative writing," he informed CNA.
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As journalists and authors, we had to see this for ourselves so we put each bot to the test - to come up with a basic sci-fi movie plot set in the futuristic megacity of Chongqing, including main characters from the timeless Chinese folklore epic, Journey to the West.
True to form, DeepSeek came up with 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 sophisticated settings - smoggy skies "pierced by skyscrapers", "holographic lanterns that float above neon-lit streets" and "ancient temples nestled in between quantum server farms".
It also remarkably reimagined standard heroes Sun Wukong as "a sarcastic, self-aware AI housed in a taken 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 an excellent battle, 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 myths."
Disappointingly, Qwen2.5 fell short in this challenge - providing a story that appeared more fit for an animation film.
"The motion picture starts with the awakening of Sun Wukong within a state-of-the-art research center situated in the heart of Chongqing," it said, then going on to explain the following:
Realising his new reality and "looking for to comprehend his function in this weird brand-new world", he then gets away and satisfies Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - "each having problem 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 "challenging to make a conclusive declaration" about which bot was best, adding that each showed its own strengths in different locations, "such as language focus, training data and hardware optimization".
Her insight highlights how Chinese AI models are not just reproducing Western paradigms, larsaluarna.se but rather evolving in economical development approaches - and providing localised and enhanced outcomes.
In our tests, each bot showcased their own special strengths, which certainly made direct comparisons .
DeepSeek's sci-fi motion picture plot demonstrated its imaginative flair that made for a more appealing and creative narrative as compared to Qwen2.5 and ChatGPT's efforts.
Unsurprisingly, the more established ChatGPT, unburdened by Chinese censorship constraints, supplies accurate and factual reactions to concerns about Chinese current occasions, which provides it an added advantage.
Experts also weighed in on their thoughts after using 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 study firm Strategy Risks.
"When given an option, Chinese users want the non-censored version - much like anybody else, so I feel like that's a piece missing out on from it."
Independent Beijing-based expert Andy Chen Xinran said censorship would not be a dealbreaker when it pertains to AI bots, particularly for Chinese users.
"Ninety percent of people using the tool are not trying to get a much deeper understanding about Xi Jinping or politically sensitive topics. They're using it for other efficient methods," Chen said.
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How do Chinese aI Bots Stack up Against ChatGPT?
zackgooseberry edited this page 2025-02-20 03:15:35 +08:00