Evaluating AI Language Models in News Retrieval: A Comparative Study Of ChatGPT-Plus and DeepSeek (R1)

The increasing complexity of how humans interact with and process information has demonstrated significant advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP), transitioning from task-specific architectures to generalized frameworks applicable across multiple tasks. Despite their success, challenges persist in specialized domains such as translation, where instruction tuning may prioritize fluency over accuracy. Against this backdrop, the present study conducts a comparative evaluation of ChatGPT-Plus and DeepSeek (R1) on a high-fidelity bilingual retrieval-and-translation task. A single standardize prompt directs each model to access the Arabic-language news section of the College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, retrieve the three most recent articles, and translate them into English. ChatGPT-Plus fulfilled the prompt successfully, extracting authentic Arabic content and delivering fluent, semantically accurate English translations. DeepSeek (R1), by contrast, failed to retrieve the requested articles and instead produced only generic procedural advice – evidence of its lack of real-time web access and a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) mechanism.