With so much happening in tech this week, it can be tough to stay on top of the key developments. To help keep you informed, we’ve rounded up the top stories from the week. In this edition of the Tech Recap: Apple reveals plans to bring Apple Intelligence to India in April, DeepSeek makes waves in the AI space, WhatsApp blocks a major spyware attack, and more.
Top tech news of the week:
1) DeepSeek takes the world by storm:
Although DeepSeek’s R1 and V3 language models have been available in the US and other global markets since mid-January, the AI company made headlines this week by overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded app on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in several countries.
DeepSeek’s rapid rise challenges the narrative put forth by several AI companies that China is years behind the US in the AI race. Additionally, the startup’s cost-effective models have debunked the widely-held belief that developing high-end, large-scale language models requires ever-growing computing power and capital.
DeepSeek asserts that its V3 model cost around $5.6 million to develop and was trained using older Nvidia H800 GPUs. While there’s some skepticism regarding the accuracy of this claim, the Chinese startup’s AI models continue to be priced significantly lower than those of its Western counterparts.
2) WhatsApp claims it spoilt a Paragon attack:
This week, WhatsApp revealed that it had thwarted a hacking campaign connected to the Israeli spyware firm Paragon. The operation targeted the phones of approximately 90 individuals, including journalists and other members of civil society.
3) Govt reduces custom duty on parts involved in mobile manufacturing:
In her 8th budget speech on Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that customs duty would be waived on several components used in mobile phone manufacturing, including camera modules, connectors, USB cables, fingerprint readers, and raw materials for wired headsets—items that were previously taxed at 2.5%. This move is expected to boost local manufacturing efforts for foreign companies like Apple and Xiaomi.
4) OpenAI rolls out o3-Mini reasoning model:
After showcasing the o3-Mini reasoning model during the 12-day Ship-mas event in December, OpenAI is now rolling it out to both free and paid users. This marks the launch of OpenAI’s first-ever “free” reasoning model, arriving at a time when the company is facing growing competition from China’s DeepSeek, whose R1 reasoning model has been available for free since its global debut in early January.
OpenAI states that its new o3-Mini model is optimized for tasks like math, coding, and science. It delivers performance on par with the o1 model in most reasoning and assessment tests, while offering more accurate and clearer answers, significantly outperforming the o1-Mini.
5) Apple Intelligence coming to India in April:
Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the tech giant will be launching a localized English version of Apple Intelligence for users in India and several other countries. While Apple Intelligence is currently available to iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro users in India, they had to change their default language to English (US) in the Settings. With the upcoming iOS 18 update in April, eligible iPhone users will likely be able to access Apple’s AI features without needing to alter their language settings.
During an earnings call on Thursday, Cook shared, “In April, we’re bringing Apple Intelligence to more languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese, as well as localized English to Singapore and India.”
