Weekly Tech Recap: ChatGPT takes inspiration from DeepSeek, iPhones get first porn app and more

With a plethora of news flooding through0ut the week, its hard to differenciate the important updates from the not so important ones. In order to help keep the readers posted, we have compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top news making waves in the world of technology. This week, OpenAI pulled a page out of DeepSeek’s playbook, Apple’s iPhones got their first porn app in the EU, Finance Ministry banned the use of ChatGPT and DeepSeek and more.

Top tech news of the week:

1) ChatGPT pulls a page out of DeepSeek’s playbook:

After rolling out its o3-Mini reasoning model to all users last week, OpenAI started provided a more detailed chain of thought for the model, taking inspiration from Chinese rival DeepSeek R1. However, unlike DeepSeek, ChatGPT still only provides a summary of its reasoning and not the raw data. OpenAI says providing this data makes it “easier for people to understand how the model thinks” (vai TechRadar). 

For context, unlike the traditional models like OpenAI’s  GPT-4o and DeepSeek’s V3, reasoning models are meant to mimic human thinking process which is said to improve complex problem solving of the AI. One of the reasons why DeepSeek shot to fame last month was that the company allowed users  to view how its reasoning model came to a conclusion, something that Western AI companies have been reluctant to share. However, despite a detailed chain of though, DeepSeek still refuses to answer questions related to Tainamen incident or North eastern states of India. 

Meanwhile, OpenAI also added a new ‘deep research’ mode to ChatGPT, allowing users to perform multi-step research on the web for more complex tasks. Notably, Deep Research is OpenAI’s second AI agent, following the launch of Operator AI for browser-related tasks last month.

2) First porn app arrives on App Store: 

Apple strongly criticized the Digital Markets Act soon afer the first porn app for iPhones became available to download in the European Union. The new app called Hot Tub became available via a third party app store called AltStore PAL.

Hot Tub markets itself as an content browser offers users the choice to browse adult content in a private and secure manner without any ads or tracking.

On the release of Hot Tub, AltStore wrote in a social media post, “We feel this is necessary to fight back against recent harmful policies by politicians, Meta, and others, and we encourage everyone to help however you can”

“We are deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn apps of this type create for EU users, especially kids. This app and others like it will undermine consumer trust and confidence in our ecosystem that we have worked for more than a decade to make the best in the world. ” Apple reacted to the availability of Hot Tub.

3) Finance Ministry bans use of DeepSeek – ChatGPT:

Finance Ministry has asked its employees to avoid using AI tools such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek for official purposes because of the risks these chatbots pose to the confidentiality of government documents and data, Reuters reported, citing an internal department advisory.

“It has been determined that AI tools and AI apps (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek etc.) in the office computers and devices pose risks for confidentiality of (government) data and documents,” the Reuters report quoted the advistory as saying.
 

4) China launches investigation into Google’s antitrust practices: 

China announced on Tuesday that it has launched an antitrust investigation into Google for allegedly violating the country’s anti-monopoly law. An official notice from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation confirmed that the Android maker had been placed under investigation in accordance with the law.

Google is already under scrutiny for its monopolistic practices in several countries around the world, including its home country, where it lost a landmark case last year. However, the timing of China’s announcement of the new action against Google is suspect, given that the investigation came shortly after the Trump administration’s 10 percent tariffs on US goods went into effect.

5) Elon Musk calls out subreddit for breaking the law, Reddit takes action:

Social media platform Reddit temporarily banned the r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit this week following a post by billionaire Elon Musk claiming that users there had broken the law. Reddit said the community was being suspended for 72 hours due to the ‘prevalence of violent content’.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), a user called ‘Reddit lies’ posted screenshots from r/WhitePeopleTwitter where people were discussing the identities of Musk’s DOGE employees who helped him take control of various systems within the US federal government in recent days.

In response to that post, Musk wrote, “They have broken the law.”