When Apple launched its Apple Intelligence product last year, the general reaction was: what took so long? The tech giant had proceeded cautiously with generative artificial intelligence (AI), while rivals Google and Samsung were unveiling new services that were giving their users a taste of smarter services. For industry watchers, it felt like the iPhone maker could fall behind the competition. Fast forward a few months and things look decidedly different. Now it looks as though Apple’s hesitancy to commit as strongly to AI could be a boon for the company. The launch of Chinese start-up DeepSeek’s new AI chatbot…