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 produced 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 important" and its foray into the field has actually been "years in the making", said Chen Qiheng, an associated researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis.

Private and public investments in Chinese AI sped up after ChatGPT removed in 2022 and revealed promises of real-world organization applications, Chen informed CNA.

But it was DeepSeek's increase that actually "encouraged" the idea that smaller sized gamers like start-up companies could have roles to play in AI research study and advancements, he includes.

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

Commentary: DeepSeek - how a Chinese AI company simply changed the guidelines of tech-geopolitics

The "emphasis on cost benefit" is a distinguishing characteristic of Chinese AI, Chen states, with lower training and inference costs - the costs of utilizing a trained model to draw conclusions from new information.

2025 could also see the introduction of more Chinese AI designs dealing with innovative reasoning tasks.

"We might see some AI companies focusing on getting closer to synthetic general intelligence (AGI) while others concentrate on concrete methods to commercialise their designs and incorporate them with clinical research study," Chen included.

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

Chinese AI companies are moving rapidly, [forum.batman.gainedge.org](https://forum.batman.gainedge.org/index.php?action=profile