Just a few days after China's AI startup DeepSeek launched its latest reasoning model, DeepSeek R1, the company's iOS app surged to the top of Apple's App Store, leaving OpenAI's ChatGPT in second place.

Apple was one of the few “magnificent seven” tech stocks that withstood a broader market fallout spurred by Chinese AI firm DeepSeek’s latest model.

Silicon Valley and Washington leaders said the app shows China can challenge the U.S. The Nasdaq lost 3 percent and chipmaker Nvidia shed $589 billion in market capitalization.

Apple has kicked off iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and MacOS 15.3 with one significant change affecting AI. Since its debut, Apple Intelligence has required the extra step of actually turning it on or opting in. But with the new versions, Apple's AI feature is enabled by default for eliglble devices.

Fortunately, it's super easy to turn off, but it goes to show that Apple Intelligence is here to stay in the walled garden.

Apple has released iOS 18.3 to all users, featuring AI notification summary tweaks, Visual Intelligence updates, and more.