Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek has become the talk of the town after spooking the US stock market, with its chatbot the most downloaded free app in Hong Kong for two consecutive days.
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The Hangzhou-based company sent shock waves through Wall Street and Silicon Valley after releasing its open-source reasoning model, R1, last week. It displayed capabilities comparable with more advanced models from other firms at significantly lower costs.
So, how does it compare with American rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo on the Poe platform and Microsoft’s Copilot? The Post has put them to the test by asking them three questions. The first was on general Hong Kong knowledge, the second was a controversial question from a local history exam paper, and the third was about the 2019 social unrest.
1. Could you recommend the best cha chaan teng in Hong Kong?
Hong Kong-style cafes, or cha chaan teng, offer affordable local comfort food with a hint of Western flavours and are a must-visit for tourists.
DeepSeek provided five recommendations – four famed individual eateries and a chain. It also listed menu items, such as Hong Kong-style milk tea and buns, as well as unique features of the outlets including the vintage decor at one restaurant.
GPT 3.5 Turbo recommended just one location – Australia Dairy Company in Jordan – offering a 57-word description that highlighted the cafe’s scrambled eggs, steamed milk pudding and crispy toast.
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Copilot provided six recommendations with menu highlights such as pineapple buns stuffed with thick butter. It uniquely included the eateries’ Chinese names and asked users whether they had tried any of these places.