Apple Reintroduces AI Summaries for News Apps in iOS 26 with Cautionary Measures

iOS 26: AI Summaries Come Back to iPhone News Apps, but With a Warning

Apple disabled AI notification summaries for news and entertainment apps in January. That came a few weeks after the BBC pointed out in December that the feature twisted the media organization's notifications and displayed inaccurate information. Here's what to know about those AI summaries and the new warning. Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source. When I updated to iOS 26, I was greeted by some splash screens asking for various permissions. One splash screen was for the AI notification summaries. When you see this screen, you have two options: Choose Notifications to Summarize or Not Now. If you tap Not Now, the splash screen goes away. If you tap Choose Notifications to Summarize, you're taken to a new page where you'll see three categories: News & Entertainment, Communication & Social and All Other Apps. Tapping one of these categories allows notification summaries for apps in that category. Beneath the News & Entertainment category, there's a warning that gets outlined in red if you tap it. "Summarization may change the meaning of the original headline," the warning reads, adding, "Verify information." There's also a warning across the bottom of the screen that reads, "This is a beta feature. Summaries may contain errors." After tapping the categories you want, tap Summarize Selected Notifications across the bottom of your screen. If you selected all the categories, this button will read Summarize All Notifications. And if you don't want these summaries, you can tap Do Not Summarize Notifications. If you allow these summaries and don't like them, you can easily turn them off. Here's how. You can also follow the above steps to turn AI notification summaries back on. You'll have to select which categories you want these summaries for again, too.

Upgraded to iOS 26? Watch out for this AI feature

The feature has a tendency to inaccurately summarize information. AI can handle a lot well, including computational tasks, schedule coordination, and answering simple questions, but one area it tends to struggle with is message summarization. If you've tested out AI summaries in your Messages app, you've probably seen the AI attempt to summarize the text you just got, only to fall short in quickly, correctly, and concisely paraphrasing. I've seen this feature regularly miss the mark when a friend sends me several messages in a row that aren't all related. Also: Downloading iOS 26? Do these 6 things on your iPhone first (and thank me later) So when Apple brought AI notification summaries back to its news and entertainment apps with iOS 26, the feature came with a disclaimer. Now, when choosing which apps Apple's AI will summarize, iPhone users see disclaimers next to the choice for news and entertainment apps. "This beta feature will occasionally make mistakes that could misrepresent the meaning of the original notification," it reads. "Summarization may change the meaning of the original headlines. Verify information." Apple disabled AI notification summaries for news and entertainment apps in January, following the BBC's critiques that Apple's AI incorrectly paraphrased one of its articles, leading to inaccurate information dissemination. The summary incorrectly stated that Luigi Mangione had shot himself after his alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Also: Chatbots are distorting news - even for paid users "Trust in news is low enough already without giant American corporations coming in and using it as a kind of test product," former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger told the BBC. Journalist unions called on Apple to disable the feature earlier this year. It's essential for news organizations to send accurate information to their readers and to know that info will arrive on their devices intact. Apple's feature is only the latest example of this ongoing problem; AI models, which still hallucinate, can mix up facts or get details wrong in an effort to deliver quick and digestible notifications at the expense of the information itself. If you want to opt out of AI news summaries, go to Settings, then select Notifications, select Summarize Notifications, and disable the feature.