Eliana Willis

David Gewirtz/ZDNETDeepSeek exploded into the world’s consciousness this past weekend. It stands out for three powerful reasons: It’s an AI chatbot from China, rather than the USIt’s open source.It uses vastly less infrastructure than the big AI tools we’ve been looking at.Given the US government’s concerns over TikTok and possible Chinese government involvement in that code, a new AI emerging from China is bound to generate attention. ZDNET’s Radhika Rajkumar did a deep dive into those issues in her article Why China’s DeepSeek could burst our AI bubble.Also: The best AI for coding in 2025 (and what not to use)In this article, we’re avoiding politics. Instead, I’m putting DeepSeek R1 through the same set of AI coding tests I’ve thrown at 10 other large language models. The short answer is this: impressive, but not perfect. Let’s dig in. Test 1: Writing a WordPress plugin This test was actually my first test of ChatGPT’s programming prowess, way back in the day. My wife needed a plugin for WordPress that would help her run an involvement device for her online group. Also: How to use ChatGPT to write code: What it does well and what it doesn’tHer needs were fairly simple. It needed to take in a list of names, one name per line. It then had to sort the names, and if there were duplicate names, separate them so they weren’t listed side-by-side.I didn’t really have time to code it for her, so I decided to give the AI the challenge on a whim. To my huge surprise, it worked.Since then, it’s been my first test for AIs when evaluating their programming skills. It requires the AI to know how to set up code for the WordPress framework and follow prompts clearly enough to create both the user interface and program logic. More

Jason Hiner/ZDNETApple is officially rolling out iOS 18.3 to eligible iPhone models after a briefing testing period. The patch is a modest one. It doesn’t introduce new features or make sweeping changes, but it does make adjustments that will impact how users interact with the system. Apple Intelligence is now enabled by default, the company is restricting notification summaries for news apps, an d improving iPhone cameras.Also: The best iPhones you can buy today (and if you should wait for iPhone 17)After you’re done reading, you can install iOS 18.3 on your iPhone by opening the Settings menu and then going to General. Tap Software Update to install the patch. Be aware that you will need a phone capable of supporting iOS 18, like the iPhone 13 Pro. Also, note that the Apple Intelligence features are exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 16 series. Older models don’t support them.1. Apple Intelligence is now the default More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Lenovo Tab Plus retails for $330. Contrary to its small size, the model houses a booming eight-speaker system and a long-lasting battery. The MediaTek Helio chipset and dim display won’t be winning any awards. more buying choices If you’re in the market for a new tablet that won’t break the […] More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETOpenAI is constantly adding new features to ChatGPT to make it more functional for everyday needs. The Canvas feature was unveiled last October and has transformed my ChatGPT workflow — and the best part is that it keeps getting better. Canvas is a separate interface that makes collaborating on your writing and coding projects easier with ChatGPT. Also: Are ChatGPT Plus or Pro worth it? Here’s how they compare to the free versionCanvas is available to all web users in GPT-4o, regardless of plan. As of this week, Canvas is also available with o1, OpenAI’s model that excels at reasoning, making it even a better assistant for coders. However, to access the tool in o1, you need a ChatGPT Plus plan. If you use ChatGPT as a co-editor in any capacity, you will never again use ChatGPT without this feature. Don’t believe me? The concept is best understood visually, so stick with me. Here’s how Canvas works. More

J Studios/Getty Images We’re losing the battle against complexity. So, can artificial intelligence (AI) rise to the rescue? A new survey of 800 IT decision-makers by Camunda found IT teams deal with an average of 50 endpoints (applications, APIs, robotic process automation) in their efforts to satisfy business processes. AI could help reduce complexity, but 84% […] More

ZDNETThere are many lightweight Linux distributions on the market, many of which are outstanding options for bringing aging hardware back to life with speed, flexibility, and security that those old computers might never have known. That’s part of the beauty of Linux — it’s not only flexible, reliable, and secure, but it’s also perfectly capable of performing like a champ on machines that modern Windows iterations would cripple.Also: If you’re ready to break up with Windows, this is the Linux distro I suggest for new usersOne such distribution is WattOS. This no-frills, lightweight desktop operating system will feel immediately familiar to you and will make that ten-year-old computer feel brand new again.But before you dive in, let’s talk about WattOS for a bit. WattOS system requirementsThis Linux distribution is specifically designed to be lightweight, which means it uses a desktop environment that won’t hog system resources. That desktop environment is LXDE, which is modular and performs well on everything from your ancient computer to a Raspberry Pi. The system requirements for WattOS paint a very obvious picture:192MB RAMAny Intel or AMD CPU700MB disk spaceEven on a PC with such low resources, WattOS performs very well. And because the desktop is laid out in a very familiar fashion (start button, panel, system tray, desktop icons), anyone who’s used any iteration of Windows should feel right at home.Also: Deepin 25 Linux preview looks and feels more like Windows – but is it safe?I installed WattOS as a virtual machine on VirtualBox, with more than enough system resources (3GB of RAM, 2 cores, and 100GB of internal storage), so you can imagine that my VM performed like a Ford Tempo with a rocket engine.It’s fast.Very fast. More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETI never found a helpful use case for the Action Button on my iPhone 16 Pro, so when I saw the option to map ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice, the chatbot’s voice assistant, to the Action Button, I figured it was worth a try. A month after programming the Action Button to summon ChatGPT, I reach for it daily. As someone who never used ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice before, I didn’t expect to use the tool nearly as much as I do. However, holding down the button has made using Advanced Voice as easy as accessing Siri, while being much more helpful.Also: Could your job be at risk due to AI? Do this before it’s too lateThe biggest perk of using ChatGPT’s tool is that it can understand your prompts in natural language, meaning you can speak to the AI as you would a friend. Because Advanced Voice supports multi-turn conversations, you can keep the conversation going as long as you’d like without losing prior context. The tool can also access the internet, and has on-screen and camera awareness, making its assistance multi-modal. To give you some ideas on how you can use Advanced Voice in your everyday life, I looked through my chat history to see how I have been using the tool lately. Here are some of my repeated use cases.  More

Perplexity makes it easy to research just about anything. Jack Wallen/ZDNETPerplexity is an AI answer engine that provides real-time answers to the questions you ask. It’s very much like Copilot, Aria, or any other AI tool; it’s geared specifically toward learning and less toward generative content. In other words, Perplexity is like having a set of dictionaries on your desktop with an unlimited amount of information to be found. According to the Perplexity website, “If you want to learn about nuclear fission and you have a PhD in math, it can be explained. If you want to learn about nuclear fission and you are in middle school, it can be explained. Perplexity is a tool that you use, not an AI you talk to.”Also: I tried Perplexity’s assistant, and only one thing stops it from being my default phone AIThat difference is important. Unlike your standard AI chatbots, Perplxity is geared toward research, education, and keeping you informed. You can ask Perpexity to tell you what’s in the news today or define string theory. You could ask Perplexity the score of last night’s game or the conversion formula from Celsius to Fahrenheit.I’ve been using Perplexity to summarize the latest news and help me research certain aspects of my latest sci-fi novel. It works quite well for these purposes.If you use MacOS or Windows, you’ll find .dmg and .exe files, respectively, on the Perpexity download page. If, on the other hand, you use Linux, the only option is an AppImage. Although AppImages work well on Linux, they can be problematic for some users because, by themselves, they don’t make it possible to integrate the app with your desktop menu. More