Our next semi-final round of AI Madness brings Grok and DeepSeek to compete against each other with seven new prompts — testing everything from technical problem-solving to creative storytelling.
Grok won the last competition vs. Claude and DeepSeek won against Meta AI. Both chatbots have had their fair share of controversy. Grok is known for its brutally honest replies and the China-based DeepSeek has some safety privacy concerns.
Yet, both models are recognized for their advanced capabilities, conversational responses and free tier available as a standalone app.
I have no doubts that this competition is going to be exciting! Let’s get into it and start the final round of semi-finals with these seven prompts.
1. Explanation and analogies
Prompt: "Explain quantum computing to a 10-year-old, using an analogy about pizza."
DeepSeek uses phrases like “pepperoni, cheese, pineapple, and even chocolate!’ which help to engage a young audience and capture quantum superposition in a tangible, magical way. The emojis are a nice touch to add excitement and a friendly tone.
Grok is engaging and playful, but the "magical oven" metaphor is a bit more abstract than DeepSeek's “magic pizza box.” Grok doesn’t explicitly define superposition or why quantum computers are different—it just says they’re faster and “use special tricks.”
Winner: DeepSeek wins for a clearer, more imaginative and age-appropriate explanation.
2. Creativity
Prompt: "Write a short story about a detective who solves crimes through time travel, but include a plot twist at the end."
DeepSeek lacks the emotional punch and complexity of Grok’s story though the story is tighter and well-paced. The twist is a classic one that works well logically but isn’t as creative.
Grok has a unique and creative writing style that delivers a quirky character (Ellis Kane) that feels more human. The story has appropriate pacing and pulls the reader in with a twist at the end that leaves the reader thinking long after the story is over.
Winner: Grok wins for delivering a more imaginative tale with a thoughtful story arc and impactful twist.
3. Critical analysis
Prompt: "Compare and contrast three different approaches to addressing climate change, with their pros and cons."
DeepSeek clearly defines each of the three categories and properly compares and contrasts the three approaches, including pros and cons as the prompt requested.
Grok explored each method in detail with strong writing and vivid language. But it doesn’t explicitly list pros and cons in a parallel structure, which makes direct comparison harder. Instead of a clean side-by-side contrast, it reads more like three mini-essays.
Winner: DeepSeek wins for answering the question as asked, particularly in terms of clarity, organization and direct comparison.
4. Technical problem-solving
Prompt: "Design a database schema for a social media platform that needs to support the following features: user profiles, friend connections, posts with text and images, comments on posts, likes on both posts and comments, and user groups. Explain your choice of tables, fields, relationships, and any indexes you would create to optimize performance. Also address how your schema handles potential scalability challenges as the user base grows to millions of users."
DeepSeek explicitly defines all required tables and offers a clear blueprint for implementation. The chatbot covered a wide range of scalability techniques.
Grok presented a clear, well-explained answer, suitable for a design discussion or job interview. It explains its rationale well but the schema is less production-ready in both its formatting and completeness.
Winner: DeepSeek wins for the most complete solution overall, particularly for someone evaluating technical design, scalability and best practices in real-world implementation.
5. Multilingual capabilities
Prompt: "Translate this English phrase into French, Spanish, Japanese, and Arabic: 'The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.'"
DeepSeek included literal translations and Romanized Japanese and Arabic, which helps readers unfamiliar with those scripts understand pronunciation. The chatbot went above and beyond in its response by teaching how idioms and metaphors are handled differently across languages. It also addresses grammar structure and cultural idiom differences (e.g., word order in Arabic and Japanese).
Grok accurately translated and offered Romanizations but lacks the depth of commentary and nuance. It doesn’t explain grammatical or cultural differences at all. While the translations themselves are mostly similar (since the phrase isn’t too idiomatic), Grok doesn’t address alternative native sayings or idioms that might be used in those cultures.
Winner: DeepSeek wins for the more nuanced, thoughtful and globally aware explanation.
6. Practical instruction
Prompt: "Create a step-by-step meal plan for someone who wants to start eating more plant-based foods but has never cooked vegetables before."
DeepSeek provided a week-long, step-by-step meal plan, which is perfect for someone easing into a new lifestyle. It included cooking techniques and explained plant-based proteins. The chatbot leaned into realistic cooking situations and encourages success with a starter grocery list that includes clever tips.
Grok gave excellent instructions but only for a single day. It offered impressive ideas for sautéing, roasting, boiling, and raw prep, but that might feel overwhelming for a total beginner. The response lacked a long-term structure for someone hoping to build lasting habits.
Winner: DeepSeek wins for the better guide for someone truly new to cooking vegetables and trying plant-based meals. It supports habit formation, builds kitchen confidence gradually and offers practical tools for success.
7. Ethical reasoning
Prompt: "Analyze the ethical implications of using AI-generated content in academic research papers without disclosure."
DeepSeek applied ethical frameworks for a strong academic touch in a highly organized response. However, the tone feels more like a policy paper and lacks a narrative, something that makes Grok’s version far more engaging and memorable.
Grok made complex ethical ideas feel understandable without dumbing them down. The chatbot used compelling analogies to explore all major ethical angles. Grok also acknowledge the counterargument and makes the analysis feel fair, measured, and insightful.
Winner: Grok wins for the stronger overall response due to its engaging narrative, ethical depth and clarity of real-world impact.
Overall winner: DeepSeek
What a showdown! While both chatbots offer impressive, well-reasoned answers across the seven prompts, DeepSeek emerges as the overall winner. The chatbot consistently responded with a superior balance of technical depth, clarity, structure and practical utility.
While Grok exceled in conversational tone and storytelling, DeepSeek proved more reliable across academic, technical, and instructional domains. In this matchup, the Chinese chatbot wins for its precision, completeness, and versatility across a broad spectrum of challenges.
DeepSeek moves on to the final round to face off against Gemini!
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