Apple's AI-Generated News Summaries Spark Controversy Over Misinformation

Apple Intelligence has a fake news problem, but one key tweak can fix it - 9to5Mac

Apple Intelligence's notification summaries have been causing a stir for unintentionally creating fake news, as especially highlighted by the BBC. Apple is planning a tweaked UI, but here's why that doesn't go far enough, and what the real fix could be. Apple has promised to ship a software update that will "further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization." Essentially, a UI change is coming, and Apple will continue making ongoing backend revisions to the beta feature. If you've used Apple Intelligence's notification summaries, you've probably seen some misinformation too. In most cases, it's not as big a deal if an iMessage or email is summarized incorrectly. If you're like me, you'll probably read the original message anyways. With news headlines, for many of us, reading more than just the notification often doesn't happen. That's why I think Apple should exclude news apps from AI summaries by default. Recently, Jason Snell at Six Colors outlined his own proposed fixes for this AI problem, as my colleague Ben Lovejoy discussed. I agree with Snell that Apple's UI fix doesn't go far enough. And hey, maybe the company's confident it can solve this problem with its continuous invisible improvements. But there's a more effective fix, at least for the short-term. Apple should disable summaries for news apps. Users can turn them back on if they'd like, but for news apps only, the feature should have a special opt-in requirement. Why? Because of the fact that many people only read headlines, not full articles. But also because -- very importantly -- headlines are already summaries. News editors have already carefully chosen the words they want to use in a headline to summarize an article's contents. Apple doesn't need to mess with that by generating its own separate 'summary of the summary.' In BBC News' examples, the problematic summaries were the result of Apple Intelligence summarizing a stack of different news notifications. Each individual notification kept its original contents, but the users saw the summarized stack. This is a useful feature, I'll admit. It combines several news blurbs into a single alert so you can get a quick update on what's happened. But losing this summarized stack is a small inconvenience to suffer in exchange for ensuring news alerts remain accurate. So far, Apple has avoided any real controversy with its image generation features in iOS 18.2. That's a big accomplishment that many of its competitors couldn't achieve. But AI news summaries are starting to provide a similar headache. In 6 months or a year, when Apple has gotten its AI models up to snuff and out of beta, maybe news app summaries can come back by default. For now though, one key change would make this problem go away. And I suspect you won't find many users who miss it -- especially if the opt-in option remains. How do you think Apple should fix its AI summaries problem? Let us know in the comments.

Apple's inaccurate AI news alerts shows the tech has a growing misinformation problem

An artificial intelligence feature on iPhones is generating fake news alerts, stoking concerns about the technology's ability to spread misinformation. Last week, a feature recently launched by Apple that summarizes users' notifications using AI, pushed out inaccurately summarized BBC News app notifications on the broadcaster's story about the PDC World Darts Championship semi-final, falsely claiming British darts player Luke Littler had won the championship. The incident happened a day before the actual tournament's final, which Littler did go on to win. Then, just hours after that incident occurred, a separate notification generated by Apple Intelligence, the tech giant's AI system, falsely claimed that Tennis legend Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. The BBC has been trying for about a month to get Apple to fix the problem. The British state broadcaster complained to Apple in December after its AI feature generated a false headline suggesting that Luigi Mangione, the man arrested following the murder of health insurance firm UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself -- which never happened. Apple was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. On Monday, Apple told the BBC that it's working on an update to resolve the problem by adding a clarification that shows when Apple Intelligence is responsible for the text displayed in the notifications. Currently, generated news notifications show up as coming directly from the source. "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback," the company said in a statement shared with the BBC. Apple added that it's encouraging users to report a concern if they view an "unexpected notification summary."

Apple's AI headlines are more of a break from reality than breaking news

The fake headlines are upsetting news organizations by undermining trust. Apple's much-hyped Apple Intelligence is facing a crisis of trust after several attempts at summarizing news headlines produced inaccurate and sometimes bizarre results. The feature has an understandable appeal for iPhone owners as Apple tries to condense notifications into digestible snippets. But instead of accurately summarizing, the AI occasionally indulges in creative writing. It's gotten bad enough that major news organizations are complaining about how the headlines mislead readers, asking Apple to fix or remove the tool before it further embarrasses them. There have been a few particularly prominent examples since Apple debuted the feature. In December, Apple Intelligence wrote a headline for a BBC story about Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, claiming Mangione had shot himself. That detail was entirely invented by the algorithm. The broadcaster wasn't thrilled about being blamed for something it didn't write. Similarly, a New York Times story did not claim Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arrested, regardless of Apple's AI headline. Apple only responded this week in a statement: "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback," the company said in the statement. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." When TechRadar reached out for comment, Apple said it had nothing to add to the statement. And while it's good that Apple has plans to fix the issue, it does feel a little like putting a "Wet Paint" sign on a wall after you already have a red stripe down the back of your shirt. Errors are endemic to generative AI; the hallucinations appear no matter what model you use, which can make the tools built by Apple, Google, or OpenAI unpredictable. These systems are trained to process and summarize information, but they're not immune to confusion. Google faced a similar backlash last year when its AI Overviews, summaries shared on top of search results, delivered some questionable facts. One could argue that errors like these are just growing pains, but when it comes to news, mistakes aren't easily forgiven or forgotten. News brands rely on people trusting their reporting, so this isn't as simple as chalking errors up to bad summaries. A wild claim unsupported by facts and attributed to a supposedly professional newsroom can make people unfairly distrustful of that news source. The last thing journalists and the public need is AI inaccuracies messing with headlines. Besides rolling out that promised update, Apple will likely have plenty of fine-tuning to do for the AI headlines. That might mean stricter guardrails for the AI, or maybe a more prominent warning that the headlines are AI-generated. If Apple can't fix this, Apple Intelligence may have to be renamed Apple Imagination.

Apple Intelligence summaries mess could be solved in three ways

Veteran tech writer Jason Snell thinks Apple's plan to address the Apple Intelligence summaries mess doesn't go far enough, and has three suggestions for the company. The post follows a series of embarrassing mistakes in attempted summaries of news stories, which have variously claimed that Luigi Mangione shot himself, announced the winner of a competition which hadn't even taken place, and reported the non-existent coming out of a tennis player ... Apple's new feature made headlines for its own inability to parse headlines a month ago. The BBC isn't pleased with Apple Intelligence's notification summary feature. The corporation says that the notification summary feature "generated a false headline" about Lugi Mangione, who was arrested this week as the suspected killer of the United HealthGroup CEO. The notification summary in question falsely suggested that Mangione had shot himself. Further examples followed. A news summary from Apple falsely claimed darts player Luke Littler won the PDC World Championship - before he has even played in the final. The incorrect summary was written by artificial intelligence (AI) and is based on a BBC story about Littler winning the tournament semi-final on Thursday night. Within hours, another AI notification summary falsely told some BBC Sport app users that tennis great Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. Apple initially kept quiet, before later emphasizing that it's a beta feature, and promising to better label AI-generated summaries. Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. Snell says Apple's proposed approach doesn't go nearly far enough - and the beta excuse doesn't wash. It's hard to accept "it's in beta" as an excuse when the features have shipped in non-beta software releases that are heavily marketed to the public as selling points of Apple's latest hardware [...] Apple's shipping a feature that frequently rewrites headlines to be wrong. That's a failure, and it shouldn't be shrugged off as being the nature of OS features in the 2020s. First up, says Snell, Apple should allow developers the ability to opt-out of their apps being included in AI summaries. Second, the summaries should have different approaches depending on the context. It should probably build separate pathways for notifications of related content (a bunch of emails or chat messages in a thread) versus unrelated content (BBC headlines, podcast episode descriptions) and change how the unrelated content is summarized. Finally, to avoid the problem of Apple attempting to summarize already-summarized content, AI should base its summary on the text of the news piece, not just the headline. This is a good take. In particular, giving app developers an opt-out would be a win-win. It would mean that organizations like the BBC could simply say 'Nope, we don't want to be an unwilling participant in your beta, thanks.' And because developers could do this, it would provide something close to a get out of jail free card for Apple, as it can point out that it's up to developers whether or not they want to run these kind of risks.

Can Apple fix its AI notifications after embarrassing mistakes?

According to a recent BBC report, Apple plans to release a software update that will clarify when its notification summaries are generated by artificial intelligence (AI) after reports of inaccurate news alerts. This announcement follows a BBC complaint regarding misleading information from its latest iPhone features. Apple's public acknowledgment of the issue came on Monday, indicating that the update aims to "further clarify" summarization notifications produced by the Apple Intelligence system. A spokesperson mentioned, "We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." The company noted that Apple Intelligence features are in beta and improvements are ongoing based on user feedback. Apple Intelligence caused chaos with a false murder report The BBC highlighted specific instances of inaccuracies, including a summary claiming that Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had committed suicide. Another erroneous summary wrongly stated that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship before the event began and that Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. These flawed AI-generated summaries do not accurately reflect the original content, according to the BBC. Apple's notification summaries, which are designed to aggregate and rewrite the previews of multiple app notifications, were recently rolled out in the UK and are only available on certain iPhone models and iPads running iOS 18.1 and above. While a small icon indicates that the notifications are not from the original apps, its significance may not be clear to users. In response to the errors, Reporters Without Borders has urged Apple to disable the generative AI feature, labeling it as "too immature to produce reliable information for the public." Apple competes in a crowded AI landscape, with other tech companies like Meta and Google also facing challenges in labeling AI-generated content accurately. Users retain the option to disable these summaries through their device settings.

Apple promises to improve AI news summaries, following embarrassing inaccuracies

Software update "will further clarify" Apple Intelligence's involvement in headline notifications. Following a litany of serious errors and numerous complaints, Apple has announced that it will make changes to the way its AI news summaries are presented to users. In December, the BBC complained when Apple Intelligence auto-summarized one of its articles as part of a notification and completely altered its meaning, falsely informing readers that the alleged killer Luigi Mangione had shot himself. "BBC News is the most trusted news media in the world," a BBC spokesperson said at the time. "It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications." But Apple seemingly did not respond to the complaint and more errors followed. In January the company's AI summarized a BBC article about the World Darts Championship to say that Luke Littler had won the competition, when it hadn't even started. (Funnily enough Littler did go on to become the youngest ever winner, but not until later.) It also incorrectly claimed Rafael Nadal had come out as gay when he had not, again presenting this information as if it came from the BBC. While the BBC appears to be the main sufferer of Apple Intelligence's inaccuracies, a New York Times alert was reportedly twisted to suggest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested; he had not. Apple has not apologised for the errors, nor has it even explicitly admitted that the AI got these things wrong. But the company has this week acknowledged that Apple Intelligence's summaries can be improved, and promised that an imminent software update will do so. "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback," the company said. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." At the moment, the notifications are presented as if they come directly from the news source. At the top they say BBC News (or NYTimes, or whatever), with the official app logo on the left; nowhere does it say that the text has been autogenerated by Apple Intelligence rather than being provided by the app. It would appear that Apple is promising only to label the text more informatively, rather than to make it more accurate... although one would hope that work on the latter aspect is ongoing as a matter of routine. For more on this story, and the limitations of AI more generally, read the Macalope's latest column, Apple Intelligence didn't write this headline.

Apple Intelligence summaries are still screwing up headlines

The UK's BBC is continuing to complain about the notification summaries created by Apple Intelligence, with iPhone users being misinformed by misinterpreted headlines. In December, the BBC complained to Apple about the summarization features of Apple Intelligence. While meant to save time for users, the summaries sometimes get things quite wrong, as it did with news headlines from the UK broadcaster. In its new complaint on January 3, the BBC has been informed of summaries appearing on iPhones that were very inaccurate. One summary, based on a headline from Thursday evening, claimed that darts player Luke Littler had "won PDC World Championship." In reality, Littler had only completed a semi-final, with the final itself to be held on Friday night. In a second example, headlines from the BBC Sport app were condensed down with the claim that "Brazilian tennis player Rafael Nadal comes out as gay." It is believed that the real headline was for a story about Brazilian gay tennis player Joao Lucas Reis da Silva, and not the Spanish Nadal. "As the most trusted news media organisation in the world, it is crucial that audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications," urged a BBC spokesperson. "It is essential that Apple fixes this problem urgently - as this has happened multiple times." The BBC is not the only organization complaining about the lack of accuracy from Apple Intelligence when it comes to headlines. Reporters Without Borders said in December that it was "very concerned by the risks posed to media outlets" by the summaries. The issues proved to the group that "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public." Apple has yet to publicly comment on the current complaints, but CEO Tim Cook did acknowledge that inaccuracies would be a potential issue in June. While the results would be of "very high quality," the CEO admitted it may be "short of 100%." In August, it was reported that Apple had preloaded instructions to counter hallucinations, instances when an AI model can create information on its own. Phrases "Do not hallucinate. Do not make up factual information" and others are fed into the system when acting on prompts. Fixing the accuracy can also be tough for Apple, since it does not actively monitor what users are seeing on devices, as part of its policies on user privacy. The priority of using on-device processing where possible also makes it harder for Apple to work the problem.

Apple Plans to Fix Inaccurate Apple Intelligence Notification Summaries

The world's biggest smartphone maker is battling a fake news crisis. Apple on Monday said it plans to release an update to Apple Intelligence that will prevent inaccurate summaries of alerts and notifications. This follows the BBC's complaint last month about an incorrect summary of a BBC news alert. Apple Intelligence notified its readers saying Luigi Mangione, the lead suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, shot himself, while it was not actually true. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarisation provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary," the company added. "Apple Intelligence features are in beta, and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback." Apple Intelligence is a suite of AI features available for iPhone 15 Pro and newer devices, running the latest version of iOS 18. One feature summarises the contents in a notification or alert to help users quickly understand information. Since its launch, widespread criticism has been observed regarding the inaccuracies of the feature. Here's a clearer version: False headlines circulated through screenshots, including several pieces of misinformation, such as Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest, a premature announcement of Luke Littler winning the PDC World Darts Championship before the tournament ended, and one that wrongly said Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. Moreover, there is also an entire subreddit called r/AppleIntelligenceFail, where users share some of the most confusing and out-of-context results derived from Apple Intelligence. What is concerning is that the AI models inside iPhones with Apple Intelligence are struggling to understand context, slang, and nuances from text written conversationally. Furthermore, a recent survey conducted by Sellcell included 1,000 users who owned iPhones with Apple Intelligence. About 73% of the respondents said that they were not satisfied with the AI features and failed to find enough value. However, 47% of iPhone users said that its AI features were 'somewhat an important deciding factor' while buying one. Quinn Nelson, a popular YouTuber, reacted to the survey results and said, "Perhaps that's because Apple Intelligence does very little to nothing in value so far.

Apple Intelligence errors with news alerts keep piling up, here's the latest - 9to5Mac

Apple Intelligence notification summaries are, in my view, one of the early killer AI features. But they're not without their flaws, as the BBC has continued highlighting via several new examples today. Here are the latest Apple Intelligence errors with news alerts. Last month, the BBC publicly aired its grievances with Apple over its new AI notification summary feature. Added in iOS 18.1, the feature allows Apple Intelligence to summarize a notification's info rather than providing the actual content as written. Apple Intelligence is currently available in beta, so Apple says you should expect mistakes and report them so the system can continually be improved. The BBC is taking that message to heart. The December example involved AI claiming, via a summarized BBC News alert, that Luigi Mangione had shot himself. This was entirely untrue. Now today, the BBC's Imran Rahman-Jones has published several more examples of Apple Intelligence errors its users have reported. A news summary from Apple falsely claimed darts player Luke Littler won the PDC World Championship - before he has even played in the final. The incorrect summary was written by artificial intelligence (AI) and is based on a BBC story about Littler winning the tournament semi-final on Thursday night. Within hours, another AI notification summary falsely told some BBC Sport app users that Tennis great Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. There are undoubtedly countless more examples users have seen, so I wouldn't be surprised if stories like this continue to become more common. Notification summaries are prone to mistakes for all kinds of apps, but understandably they can be especially problematic when summarizing breaking news. Summarizing the contents of what is already a summary seems a bit unnecessary in the first place, so I wonder if Apple's ultimate remedy will be disabling AI summaries for news apps by default. Do you think these Apple Intelligence errors are a serious issue? How have summaries been in your experience? Let us know in the comments.

Apple Says It Will Clarify That Its Bad Notification Summaries Are AI-Generated

Apple has received criticism for generating summaries of notifications that are wrong or just useless. Apple will soon push an update to iOS that more clearly denotes when notifications have been summarized by its Apple Intelligence software. The company has received significant pushback over the summarization feature, especially from the BBC, which has complained that the AI technology inaccurately summarized its news notifications. Back in December, not long after Apple rolled out some of the first major features of Apple Intelligence, the BBC wrote in an article that the AI had erroneously summarized a series of notifications from its app to say that Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself when in fact he had not. The BBC said that the error could hurt trust in a media industry that is already suffering from a lack of confidence from the general public. After several weeks, Apple finally responded to the BBC to say that it would be addressing the issue. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence," the company told the BBC. "We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." It is unclear how Apple will clarify to users when a notification has been summarized. As it functions today, an app's official icon is displayed next to the summaries. Perhaps when iOS does summarize a notification, it should replace the official iconâ€"in this case for the BBC appâ€" with the icon for Siri instead, to make the distinction clear. That may not even necessarily be enough, though. How often might a novice user read these summarized notifications and not understand what is going on? The point of notification summaries is to rewrite multiple notifications from an app into one single alert so that users can quickly get up to speed and identify anything that needs attention. But besides blatant errors, AI summaries have also been the subject of mockery over sometimes awkward or useless summaries devoid of necessary context that still require reading the full notifications to understand. If users do not trust the summaries and have to review the complete notifications anyway, they are not saving any time. It is the same issue that befell Siri before it: The voice assistant failed at basical queries and users quickly lost faith they could rely on it for much of anything besides starting a timer. Apple has been criticized for its debut of Apple Intelligence, with sentiment across social media suggesting that many people find the initial features largely useless or harmful to the iOS experience. In December, the company added support for ChatGPT in Siri, meaning some more queries are now kicked over to the OpenAI chatbot to answer. Apple is expected to beef up Siri itself with conversational AI abilities, but recent reports suggest that will take time. It also intends to add other AI features to iOS, including the ability for Siri to interface with apps directly allowing users to, for instance, ask the assistant to find a dinner reservation in their email. The driver for Apple releasing Apple Intelligence is clearly out of a need to juice iPhone upgrades; the smartphone accounts for more than half of Apple's revenue, and Apple Intelligence is only available on the iPhone 15 Pro and above. But most of the features released thus far have been underwhelmingâ€"like the ability to identify real-world objects by pointing the camera at themâ€"and recent surveys suggest consumers are not buying new iPhones to get them. It should be no surprise to anyone who has interacted with generative AI that these problems were going to occur. But it seems uncharacteristic of Apple to incorporate technology into its products like generative AI, which is notoriously hard to control and prone to hallucinating or producing outputs that are flat-out wrong. For a company that cares so much about polish, this is a mess so far.

BBC Calls Out Apple's AI Feature for Creating More Fake News Headlines

Apple is once again under scrutiny after its AI-powered notification system generated false news summaries on Friday, including an erroneous claim about a darts player winning a championship and a fabricated story about tennis star Rafael Nadal. BBC News reported that Apple Intelligence incorrectly notified users that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Championship before the final match had even taken place. In a separate incident on the same day, the system falsely claimed that Rafael Nadal had come out as gay, misinterpreting a story about a Brazilian tennis player. These latest mishaps follow previous concerns raised by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which called for Apple to remove the AI summary feature last month after it generated misleading headlines about a high-profile murder case. The journalism organization warned that such AI-generated summaries pose "a danger to the public's right to reliable information." The BBC has demanded urgent action from Apple, claiming that the recurring issue threatens the credibility of trusted news organizations. "It is essential that Apple fixes this problem urgently - as this has happened multiple times," a BBC spokesperson said. Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 models, and select iPads and Macs running iOS 18.1 or later. Amongst other things, the AI features aim to simplify notification management by condensing multiple alerts into brief summaries. The feature includes a reporting mechanism for inaccurate summaries, but Apple has not publicly addressed the ongoing concerns or disclosed the number of reports it has received.

Apple Intelligence caught spewing false news headlines again -- this needs to stop

Apple's AI-generated headline summaries show how implicitly trusting artificial intelligence can be a worrying shortcut Last month, Apple Intelligence produced an embarrassing hallucination about the news story that everyone was talking about. It claimed that Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had killed himself. This week, Apple Intelligence produced two more embarrassing errors for BBC app users. The first claimed that darts player Luke Littler had won the PDC World Championship when he had only progressed to the final, while the second managed to fit two errors in just nine words: "Brazilian tennis player, Rafael Nadal, comes out as gay." Rafael Nadal -- who is Spanish -- hadn't come out. The linked feature was actually about the Brazilian player Joao Lucas Reis da Silva and how he accidentally became an LGBT trailblazer by posting a birthday message to his boyfriend on Instagram. Weirdly, neither the words "Rafael" nor "Nadal" feature at all in the piece, making this hallucination all the more mysterious. A BBC spokesperson was understandably irked by this. "It is essential that Apple fixes this problem urgently - as this has happened multiple times," a statement on the story reads. "As the most trusted news media organisation in the world, it is crucial that audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications." Apple is yet to comment about the latest BBC report, though the article notes that last time around the company opted to say nothing. Elsewhere, AppleInsider notes that Tim Cook previously stated that while Apple Intellgence's results would be of "very high quality", it would be "short of 100%". We don't think he believes that short of 100% is acceptable for news headlines, which is why this needs to stop. If there's a positive to this story, it's this: these mistakes are obvious, easily disproved and likely seen by multiple people. The trouble with other AI hallucinations is that they'll only ever be seen by one person at a time, as they're generated on the fly to match a person's very specific request. Take Google search, for example. Estimates say there are "over 8.5 billion searches a day," and with Google now using an AI Overview to summarize a (sometimes dangerous) answer, plenty of these will be generating nonsense in the name of saving users a click. It's impossible to know how many people will blindly accept hallucinations as fact, and in most cases, inaccuracies will be benign. Nonetheless, it's sad that the internet -- once seen as a great educational equalizer -- could be inadvertently making users ill-informed in the name of convenience. With Apple Intelligence pushing these summaries to millions of users at the same time, it's a bit different. While the BBC notes that the texts will be unique because "different combinations of notifications are summarised" it's likely that multiple people will see similar hallucinations, and that makes the falsehoods easier to debunk. That's especially true when, unlike search summaries, notifications are designed to encourage clickthrough. If a user taps on the notification, they'll quickly learn that Luigi Mangione is alive, Rafael Nadal hasn't come out, and Luke Littler hasn't won the PDC World Championship yet (he actually did go on to win on Friday, as it happens). Hopefully these early mistakes will make people a bit more skeptical of the wisdom of accepting AI shortcuts. If so, oddly, these high-profile embarrassments for Apple might be doing the world a big favor. The fact that the hallucinations have so far been relatively minor shouldn't be of great comfort to anyone. No tragedies are going to occur because someone erroneously thought a darts player won a tournament early, but not all mistakes are equal. Should Apple Intelligence have a hallucination over something significant -- a nuclear attack or a terrorist incident, say -- then the potential for mass panic is massive. The more false headlines it spews, the more Apple wipes away goodwill it had with the Apple Intelligence launch. It would be wise for the company to put the feature on indefinite pause until more safeguards can be put in place -- both for its own reputation, and to avoid more serious mishaps.

Apple Intelligence will make a major change to notifications -- after serious complaints about misinformation

Apple is updating Apple Intelligence after its "smart notifications" feature started spreading misinformation by combining news stories or hallucinating details. A formal complaint by the BBC in December highlighted news alerts, branded with the BBC logo presenting false information as fact. Among them was one claiming Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Mangione is currently alive. The iPhone-maker says it will roll-out the update in the coming weeks and will flag when a notification is actually an AI-generated summary. Apple told the BBC that its Apple Intelligence features were still in beta and constantly being updated. It is currently only available on select devices running iOS 18.2 or macOS 15.2. Almost all Apple Intelligence features happen on-device using a relatively small language model. While AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini have largely tackled the hallucination problem, this is still an issue for some smaller models. Apple's smart summaries condense the content of notifications, whether from your email, a website or the News App, to provide a clearer overview. This can result in funny, tragic or worrying results. For Apple News notifications it looks at the headline and body of the article to generate a short summary. Issues tend to arise when it combines multiple stories into one summary, creating confusing or completely wrong headlines. In future, Apple says the summaries will be more clearly flagged as AI generated.

Apple's AI notification feature is making up news

Table of Contents Table of Contents What summarized notifications are supposed to do What summarized notifications are doing What can be done? With the launch of Apple Intelligence and iOS 18.1, Apple introduced summarized notifications to assist users in managing notification overload. These notifications group alerts and display only the essential details. However, the BBC has recently pointed out that these notifications, particularly news alerts, do not consistently deliver accurate information. What summarized notifications are supposed to do In iOS 18.1 and later, instead of being overwhelmed with individual notifications, you can receive them bundled into a single, summarized notification. This feature is handy for group chats and news updates. Recommended Videos The summaries utilize AI to identify and present the most critical information. For instance, a summary might indicate when a group chat is especially active or highlight breaking news you should be aware of. Please enable Javascript to view this content You can receive these summaries at specific times, such as in the morning or evening. This allows you to catch up on missed updates without constant interruptions. Additionally, you can control which apps use summarized notifications, enabling you to customize the experience to suit your preferences. What summarized notifications are doing Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that summarized notifications always present accurate information. For example, the BBC pointed out that recent summarizations of BBC news articles said darts player Luke Littler had won the PDC World Championship and tennis great Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. Neither of these events happened. However, the BBC did admit many of the headlines generated by Apple Intelligence were accurate. These examples come after Reporters Without Boards (RSF) called on Apple to remove the feature. As Vincent Berthier, the head of RSF's technology and journalism desk, noted in December: "The automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet's credibility. Further, "he added it was "a danger to the public's right to reliable information on current affairs." What can be done? When summarized, notifications work; they are helpful. Since using summarized notifications, however, I've noticed occasional errors in the headlines generated by Apple Intelligence. While this can be frustrating, I understand that the feature is still new and relies on AI, so it will take time for the company to improve it. Despite this, BBC, RSF, and others are also right to criticize Apple for its current flaws. Moving forward, it would be helpful for Apple to acknowledge the problem and clarify the steps it is taking to improve the feature. In the meantime, users can turn off summarized notifications by going into the Settings app and choosing Notifications > Summarized Notifications. From there, you can turn the feature off entirely or by app using toggles. Apple Intelligence is currently only available on select Apple devices that are running iOS 18.1 or later. For iPhone, this includes the iPhone 16 series, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple's fix for bad AI notification summaries won't actually improve results | AppleInsider

In a response to BBC concerns over incorrect Apple Intelligence notification summaries, Apple has promised to make it more clear when AI is used. Apple Intelligence rolled out to the public in October 2024 in a very early state. One of the primary features, notification summaries, often stumbles over the nuances in language that result in incorrect or outlandish results. Rather than promise to make notification summaries better, Apple has shared, through a statement to the BBC that it will make it more clear when AI is used to generate a notification summary. The fix is meant to ensure users know that what they see may not be 100% accurate. Apple's response comes after repeated complaints from the publication. Summaries have shown people being murdered, coming out as gay, or other shocking combinations that stun users and content publishers. The fix will likely help reduce some of the concerns, as the current UI shows a tiny symbol of two lines and a curved arrow when a summary is performed. If users know a summary is AI-generated before they read it, it may help reduce confusion. Apple could have promised to "fix" Apple Intelligence summaries, but it isn't as simple as that. The company is always working to improve the model, but there will always be a chance that different notifications coming in could create disastrous results. A recent example being shared to social media is a summary suggesting Nikki Glaser was killed at the Golden Globes. The real headline read "Nikki Glaser killed as host of the Golden Globes." As many non-native English speakers will tell you, there are way too many idioms and alternative meanings in the language. An artificial language generation tool looking for keywords to use in a summary can't pick up on subtleties or sarcasm. It seems doubtful that Apple's fix will satisfy the complainers, but there is another option for users. Go to Settings -> Notifications -> Summarize Notifications to turn off the feature or at least toggle which apps use it.

Apple Intelligence's Notification Summaries Will Have a Warning, Not a Fix

Apple is working on an update to its Apple Intelligence feature that reminds people its summarized notifications are AI-generated. This comes after some outlets raised concerns about misleading notification headlines created by the AI. Apple Intelligence's notification summaries come with devices with iOS 18.1 or later, and groups together notifications from the same app to give users an ai generated overview. However, there have been problems with the AI misinterpreting news stories, leading to incorrect summaries. Apple told the BBC, "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." ✕ Remove Ads Apple will now slap a warning label on its AI's headlines, which is not fixing the problem, but trying to give the company deniability. These aren't small mistakes like a typo or a number that is off. If a news organization actually released these headlines, it could be seen as libel and lead to a lawsuit. It's a wonder why this AI was released to the public when it's clearly not ready. Some of the incorrect summaries included a claim about the champion of a darts championship before it even happened, and the false claim that a tennis player came out as gay. There's plenty more on the r/AppleIntelligenceFail subreddit, which raises significant concerns that should not be disregarded. These mistakes came from Apple's AI-generated summaries of real news, and Apple's mistakes could harm people's trust in real news outlets. Reporters Without Borders recommends turning off the feature because of the issues with generative AI providing accurate information to the public. Even outside of creating made-up news headlines, it doesn't seem to be that useful. ✕ Remove Ads Sources: BBC, AppleIntelligenceFail Subreddit, Reporters Without Borders, MacRumors

Apple responds to BBC complaint over AI accuracy

Apple plans to update an AI feature that produced an alarmingly incorrect summary of a BBC news story. The feature generated a headline summary which falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione, a man arrested over the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thomson, had shot himself. The summary was attributed to BBC News and sparked a complaint from the UK's national broadcaster. The original story said nothing of the sort. The incident happened before Christmas, and it has taken until this week for Apple to acknowledge concerns over the feature, according to the BBC. The company's solution? Instead of temporarily removing the technology or employing fact-checkers who might ensure accurate information appears on users' screens, Apple intends to implement a software change to "further clarify" when the displayed content is a summary provided by Apple Intelligence. We're sure Register readers could suggest a variety of emojis that could be attached to AI output to warn a viewer that the summarized content might be inaccurate. Apple told the BBC that receiving the summaries was optional and reportedly said: "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." While putting control over receiving the summaries into the hands of users is helpful, it would be better for Apple to make this an opt in feature until the issues have been ironed out. The BBC also noted that the Mangione issue was not an isolated incident: "On Friday, Apple's AI inaccurately summarised BBC app notifications to claim that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship hours before it began - and that the Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay." Apple is not alone in the AI inaccuracy department. Google has begun putting AI overviews at the top of its results, occasionally serving up incorrect information that appears to be fact. While AI summaries can be useful, Apple needs to make it very clear when Apple Intelligence is producing a summary and when it is coming directly from an application. Otherwise, it risks being spattered by the same AI slop that daubs certain other services. ®

Apple Intelligence Update Will Add Clarification to Prevent Fake Headline Confusion

Apple is working on an update for Apple Intelligence that will cut down on confusion caused by inaccurate summaries of news headlines, Apple told BBC News. In a statement, Apple said software coming soon will clarify when notifications have been summarized by Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary. The statement comes following a BBC News complaint over a pair of false notification headlines generated by Apple Intelligence on Friday. One notification claimed Luke Littler won a darts championship before the tournament had even begun, and another falsely suggested former tennis player Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. BBC News called on Apple to take action because the ongoing Apple Intelligence issue threatens consumer trust in news organizations. Available on compatible devices in iOS 18.1 and later, Apple Intelligence notification summaries are designed to group multiple notifications from the same app together, providing a one-sentence overview of the content. These short summaries can cause problems when AI pulls the wrong details from news stories. There have been several prior events where Apple Intelligence provided incorrect details from incoming news app notifications. In November, Apple Intelligence suggested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested, incorrectly interpreting a story from The New York Times. Last month, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged Apple to disable the Apple Intelligence notification feature after a misleading headline suggesting murder suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself. RSF said that "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public." Apple Intelligence notification summaries are an opt-in feature and they can be disabled.

iPhone 16 AI Feature Misfires Leads to Apple Update After BBC Complaint

Apple has announced plans to refine its AI tools following complaints from the BBC about inaccurate headline summaries delivered to users of its latest iPhones. The BBC raised concerns last month after Apple's AI-powered system misrepresented a news alert about Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, inaccurately stating that Mangione had shot himself. More issues arose last week when the tool, known as Apple Intelligence, incorrectly summarized BBC Sport headline notifications . It falsely claimed that Luke Littler had won the World Darts Championship Final hours before the match began and erroneously stated that Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. Apple Intelligence is designed to generate brief overviews of missed notifications by summarizing multiple alerts from individual apps. The company has acknowledged the errors and is working to improve the accuracy of these AI-driven summaries. "These AI summaries from Apple not only fail to reflect our original content but, in some cases, directly contradict it. Ensuring the accuracy of our news is vital to maintaining trust, and we urge Apple to address these issues urgently," the television company said. In response, Apple confirmed that an update to its Apple Intelligence feature would be rolled out "in the coming weeks." The company also emphasized that the summarization feature is optional. "Apple Intelligence features are currently in beta, and we are continuously refining them based on user feedback," Apple stated. "An upcoming software update will make it clearer when a displayed text is a summary generated by Apple Intelligence. We also encourage users to report any unexpected notification summaries they encounter." Google Also Under Spotlight Over the past year, numerous major smartphone manufacturers and tech companies have introduced generative AI tools. However, Apple is not the only firm facing challenges with content generation technology. Google, for example, has encountered criticism for its AI tools, including instances of erratic or inaccurate responses. Issues have been reported with its search engine's AI Overviews feature, as well as inaccuracies in historical depictions created by its AI-powered image generation tool.

Apple's AI Notification Summaries Will Soon Come With Critical Reminder

Apple will soon release a software update that clarifies when a notification summary is being generated using Apple Intelligence, the BBC reports. Apple's AI summaries, part of its broader suite of Apple Intelligence tools, have been creating false headlines that seem as though they're coming from news apps. Last month, the BBC warned users that an Apple notification summary of its journalism stated that the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter, Luigi Mangione, had shot himself. Another claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. But both of those AI-generated "summaries" were wildly incorrect. The BBC flagged Apple Intelligence's false summaries of its content to Apple last month, stating: "It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications." On Monday, Apple promised to release a software update that tells users that Apple Intelligence, and not the app itself, generates the notification summaries on its devices. Such a reminder doesn't fix the hallucinations, though, which Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously acknowledged are possible. "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence," Apple said in a statement to the outlet, adding: "We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." The BBC isn't the only organization upset with Apple Intelligence-powered notifications. Last month, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also criticized the feature for its generated falsehoods and asked Apple to remove it. AI hallucinations are arguably one of the tech's biggest problems. Grok, xAI's flagship model, has also repeatedly misinterpreted news stories and made up falsehoods in the past. While it's unlikely Apple would remove such notification summaries from iPhones completely, you can disable them by going to Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications.

Apple plans software update after AI summaries get news headlines wrong

Apple plans to release a software update that is meant to help users understand better that its notification summaries are AI-generated and may contain errors, according to a recent BBC news story. The update is a response to reports that the summaries gave users misleading information about world events. For example, one false summary suggested to at least one user that Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had committed suicide. The notification in question was meant to summarize the most important tidbits from 22 BBC news app notifications, according to a widely circulated screenshot. Apple hasn't publicly specified exactly what will be changed to better inform users -- only that it will be a software change that will "further clarify" when the notifications have been generated via the feature that resides under Apple Intelligence umbrella. The notification summaries, which are generated for individual users and devices via a custom large language model (LLM) Apple has trained, already had a small icon on them to indicate that they were not normal, unaltered notifications from the apps in question. However, that icon's meaning may not be immediately apparent to most users. Users can disable the Apple Intelligence notification summaries by accessing the Settings app on their mobile devices. When contacted for a statement, an Apple spokesperson told Ars: Apple Intelligence is designed to help users get everyday tasks done faster and more easily. This includes optional notification summaries, which provide users who choose to opt in a way to briefly view information from apps and tap into the full details whenever they choose. These are identified by a summarization icon, and the original content is a quick tap away. Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary. The BBC stories about the error-prone AI have often seemed to lack understanding of how the Apple Intelligence notification summaries work, saying that they came "from within Apple's app" (the summaries are a system-wide feature) and suggesting that all users received the offending notification about Mangione (the wording of the summaries varies on individual devices depending on what other notifications were received around the same time).

Apple to update AI feature after BBC issues complaint

The tech giant has faced considerable backlash regarding recurring inaccurate news notifications. Technology company Apple has said that in the coming weeks it will update its AI feature after a series of incorrect AI news notifications, seemingly from the BBC's own site, prompted a complaint from the broadcaster. On Friday (3 December) Apple's AI summarised a number of notifications from the BBC app, generating content that incorrectly stated Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship, despite the contest having only just gotten underway. Additionally, Apple's AI generator issued false claims that Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had made an announcement regarding his sexuality. This is not the first complaint issued against Apple's technology, previously journalist advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders, called for a halt to the Apple Intelligence news feature, stating "the automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet's credibility and a danger to the public's right to reliable information on current affairs". Launched in the UK in December 2024, Apple Intelligence was designed to give users an easy to read round-up of trending news alerts, however, within days the app circulated a false story suggesting that Luigi Mangione, the main suspect in the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, had died by suicide. In its first acknowledgment of the ongoing issue, this past Monday (6 January) an Apple spokesperson said that the company was working on a software change that would "further clarify" when notifications are summaries that have been generated by the Apple Intelligence system. A spokesperson for the BBC said, "These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect and in some cases completely contradict, the original BBC content. It is critical that Apple urgently addresses these issues as the accuracy of our news is essential in maintaining trust." Additionally, in October of 2024 it was announced that, despite concerns it would not be made available due to wider issues with the Digital Markets Act, users could expect Apple Intelligence features to roll out to iPhone and iPad users in the EU from April 2025. In regards to its plans to amend the feature, SiliconRepublic.com reached out to Apple for a statement, however, the company declined to comment. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Apple Under Fire for Fake AI-Generated News Summaries | PYMNTS.com

Apple is facing mounting criticism over its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven news summary feature that has produced inaccurate and misleading headlines on its latest iPhones. The BBC first flagged the issue in December, when a news alert summary that looked to come from the BBC app wrongly reported that Luigi Mangione, charged with alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, had shot himself. But the BBC said Apple did not respond until Jan. 6, saying that it was working to clarify that summaries came from the AI. However, Apple repeated the offense on Jan. 3. This time, Apple's news summary said Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship before the contest even began. There have also been other instances. "These AI summarizations by Apple do not reflect -- and in some cases completely contradict -- the original BBC content," the BBC said on Jan. 6. "It is critical that Apple urgently addresses these issues as the accuracy of our news is essential in maintaining trust." PYMNTS reached out to Apple and the BBC for comment but did not get replies in time for publication. Other publications have also experienced similar hallucinations from Apple's AI. For example, in November, it sent an alert purportedly from The New York Times that said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested, according to a post on Bluesky by ProPublica journalist Ken Schwencke. Vincent Berthier, head of the technology and journalism desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French), called on Apple to remove this feature from its phones. "The automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet's credibility and a danger to the public's right to reliable information on current affairs," he said on Dec. 18 on the group's website. RSF said such incidents prove that "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public and should not be allowed on the market for such uses." The hallucinations are not relegated to just news, either. Apple's AI also summarizes texts and chats, with sometimes hilarious results. For example, Andrew Schmidt's mother said that a hike had almost killed her. The AI summarized it as an attempted suicide by Pamela J. Schmidt, according to an Oct. 25 post on X. Apple isn't the only tech giant grappling with challenges in GenAI tools. Google has faced criticism for its AI-driven search summaries called AI Overviews, which also produced erratic and inaccurate responses last year. For example, it recommended eating at least one small rock per day because rocks are a vital source of minerals and vitamins, according to a May 23 post on X. The propensity of AI systems to be inaccurate underscores a pervasive challenge to businesses looking to adopt GenAI. Consider the 2022 case of Air Canada, whose chatbot told a traveler that he could buy a full-priced ticket to attend his grandmother's funeral and then apply for the discounted bereavement fare later, according to the BBC. However, the chatbot made up the policy. When the traveler, Jake Moffatt, tried to get his discount, the airline told him the chatbot was wrong and refused him a partial refund. Air Canada said the chatbot was its own legal entity and responsible for its own actions. He took the airline to a tribunal, and Air Canada was ordered to pay around $800. But despite the hazards of hallucinations, GenAI is likely to stay, given the productivity gains it brings. AI foundation model developers, which are mainly Big Tech companies, are working on ways to mitigate hallucinations, including using high quality data, limiting responses, adding a human in the loop and using techniques like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), among others. OpenAI also developed a method that rewards each correct step of reasoning in a model's change-of-thought process when solving math problems, instead of just the final answer.

Apple will more clearly label Apple Intelligence notification summaries soon

Apple will soon update Apple Intelligence notification summaries to make it clearer that they're AI-generated. (The feature currently uses a small icon to denote their AI-generated status.) The BBC complained to the company after discovering several bogus summaries that twisted the content of some BBC headlines. On Monday, Apple told Engadget that the update will arrive "in the coming weeks." "Apple Intelligence is designed to help users get everyday tasks done faster and more easily," an Apple spokesperson wrote in a statement to Engadget. "This includes optional notification summaries, which provide users who choose to opt in a way to briefly view information from apps and tap into the full details whenever they choose. These are identified by a summarization icon, and the original content is a quick tap away. Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." The BBC flagged several botched AI notification summaries in multiple reports over the last month -- accusing the phony summaries of spreading misinformation. One falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione, the accused murderer of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Other erroneous summaries said that a darts player had won a world championship before playing in the final (maybe he's just that good!), and that tennis superstar Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. Notification summaries are one of the features from the first wave of Apple Intelligence that arrived in iOS (and iPadOS) 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1. A second phase, bringing ChatGPT integration and Image Playground, came in iOS (and iPadOS) 18.2 and macOS 15.2.

Apple Intelligence Notification Summary Will Get a Disclaimer in next iOS Update

Ever since Apple rolled out its Apple Intelligence features, it has remained in the limelight. While users appreciated some AI features for making their lives easier, one feature got a lot of backlash. Yes, we're talking about AI-powered Notification Summaries. We've come across several instances where Apple Intelligence provided incorrect summaries from incoming news app notifications. After facing quite a lot of criticism, Apple is working on an Apple Intelligence update to prevent the confusion caused by inaccurate summaries of news headlines. Apple told BBC News that a software update is coming soon to clarify when Apple Intelligence has summarised notifications. "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." This statement comes after a BBC complaint over a false notification summary generated by Apple Intelligence. One AI alert claimed that Luke Littler had already won the darts finals before the championship tournament had even begun. Another notification said former Brazilian tennis player Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. Following these notifications, Apple AI was under fire. BBC News asked Apple to take action on these incorrect Apple Intelligence summaries because it hampers customers' trust in their news organization. For reference, Notification Summaries is an Apple Intelligence feature available on devices running iOS 18.1 or later. This feature groups multiple notifications from an app so you get a one-sentence overview of the content. While this feature was designed to help users scan multiple notifications faster and save time, it completely missed the mark. Unfortunately, Notification Summaries is sometimes stupid and sometimes hilarious, but it's never 100% accurate. Most of the time, AI pulls the wrong details from the news and messes up the content completely. There have been several reports that Apple Intelligence has provided incorrect or false details. In November, Notification Summaries incorrectly interpreted a story from The New York Times and suggested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. Also, last month, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asked Apple to disable the Notification Summaries feature after AI generated a headline suggesting murder suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself. They further added that "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public." Fortunately, Notification Summaries are an opt-in feature and you can easily turn them off in the iPhone settings.

Apple says it will update AI feature after inaccurate news alerts

One alert claimed BBC story said Luigi Mangione, alleged murderer of US healthcare CEO, had killed himself Apple has said it will update an AI feature that has issued inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones, including that a man accused of killing a US insurance boss had shot himself and that tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. The tech company said it was developing a software update that would "further clarify" when news notifications were actually summaries generated by the company's Apple Intelligence system. It said the update would be rolled out in the coming weeks. It follows a formal complaint by the BBC last month, when news alerts branded with the corporation's logo told some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Mangione is alive and being held at a prison in Brookyln. False news alerts were issued again on Friday last week, when Apple's AI system summarised BBC app notifications to wrongly say that Nadal had come out as gay. The summaries also claimed that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship hours before the competition began. "These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect - and in some cases completely contradict - the original BBC content," the BBC said. "It is critical that Apple urgently addresses these issues as the accuracy of our news is essential in maintaining trust." The faulty feature was one of the AI tools released to users of some newer iPhones in December, including the iPhone 16, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max handsets, as well as on some iPads and Macs. "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback," Apple said in a statement to the BBC. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary," Apple added.

Apple working to update AI feature after BBC complaint

Apple said its update would arrive "in the coming weeks". It has previously said its notification summaries - which group together and rewrite previews of multiple recent app notifications into a single alert on user's lock screens - aim to allow users to "scan for key details". "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback," the company said in a statement on Monday, adding that receiving the summaries is optional. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary." The feature, along with others released as part of its broader suite of AI tools was rolled out in the UK in December. It is only available on its iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max handsets running iOS 18.1 and above, as well as on some iPads and Macs. Several instances of the technology appearing to interpret messages in a highly blunt, literal way have gone viral on social media. In November, a ProPublica journalist highlighted erroneous Apple AI summaries of alerts from the New York Times app suggesting it had reported that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. The BBC has not been able to independently verify the screenshots, and the New York Times declined to comment. Reporters Without Borders, an organisation representing the rights and interests of journalists, called on Apple to disable the feature in December. It said the attribution of a false headline about Mr Mangione to the BBC showed "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public". Apple is not alone in having rolled out generative AI tools that can create text, images and more content when prompted by users - but with varying results. Google's AI overviews feature, which provides a written summary of information from results at the top of its search engine in response to user queries, faced criticism last year for producing some erratic responses. At the time a Google spokesperson said that these were 'isolated examples' and that the feature was generally working well.

Apple Admits AI Flaws After BBC Complains, Vows Fix For Misleading News Summaries - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple Inc. AAPL has committed to updating its AI feature following a complaint from the BBC. What Happened: The tech giant acknowledged on Monday that its AI-generated news summaries on iPhones have been inaccurate, reported BBC. The issue came to light last month after the BBC reported that an AI-generated summary falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. See Also: Apple Supplier Foxconn Posts Record Revenue, Rides High On AI Server Demand And Nvidia Partnership On Friday, Apple's AI once again inaccurately summarized BBC app notifications, stating that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship before it began and that Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. This is the first time Apple has formally addressed the BBC's concerns, the report noted. Apple did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: This comes at a time when the company is navigating a significant shift towards AI and virtual reality. In November 2024, Apple warned investors about potential profit risks associated with these emerging technologies, which may not match the revenue and profit margins of its flagship iPhone line. Despite these challenges, analysts like Dan Ives from Wedbush remain optimistic about Apple's future. In a December analysis, Ives predicted a "golden era of growth" for Apple, driven by a multi-year AI-driven iPhone upgrade cycle. Price Action: Apple's stock rose 0.67% on Monday, closing at $245, as per Benzinga Pro data. Latest analyst reports from Bernstein, B of A Securities, and Wedbush have set an average price target of $280.33, suggesting a potential upside of 14.43%. Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock.com Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Consumer Tech News (Dec 30-Jan 3): Apple Stops Selling iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone SE, Trump Seeks A 'Political Resolution' Of TikTok Ban & More Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Here's how Apple will 'fix' the iPhone's false AI notification summary problem

Users irritated by the AI notification summaries can already turn them off entirely or per app. Apple Intelligence launched in beta a few months ago, providing iPhone 16 and 15 Pro users with system-level AI tools. One of the controversial perks included with this AI suite is a notification summary feature that works across Apple and third-party apps. When enabled, the system scans long alerts and notification stacks and provides one-line summaries that encompass their gist. Expectedly, the feature doesn't always provide accurate results, so Apple will address user concerns via a future software update.

Apple promises software update to address Apple Intelligence notification summary complaints - 9to5Mac

Apple has officially responded to growing concerns around incorrect Apple Intelligence notification summaries. In a statement today, the company said it will release a software update "in the coming weeks" that makes it clearer when Apple Intelligence is summarizing notifications... In a statement to the BBC, an Apple spokesperson said: Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary. The BBC has highlighted multiple instances of Apple Intelligence botching summaries of notifications from the BBC news app. One such example suggested that Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Last week, the BBC published another story highlighting multiple other examples of incorrect Apple Intelligence summaries. Today's statement marks the first time that Apple has addressed the BBC's concerns. The news outlet has said incorrect Apple Intelligence notification summaries "are harming trust not only in the BBC, but in news and information more widely." Apple has not shared specific details on how it plans to address these concerns. Currently, Apple Intelligence notification summaries are denoted by a small icon at the beginning of the summarized text. It sounds like the forthcoming software update will tweak that interface to make it more obvious that the text is AI generated. iOS 18.3 is currently in beta testing and is expected to be released to everyone later this month, and the changes to notification summaries may be included in that update. You can manage which notifications are summarized on your iPhone by going to the Settings app, tapping "Notifications," and then tapping "Summarize Notifications."

Following complaints, Apple to 'further clarify' when notification summaries use AI | TechCrunch

Apple said on Monday it would release an update to better indicate that its notification summaries are generated by artificial intelligence. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. Apple's notification summaries are helpful, but they can also be quite inaccurate. The summaries are sometimes funny, but they often also cause mild confusion. Last month, BBC complained that the feature misrepresented a headline, with the summary saying that Luigi Mangione, the person charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Last year, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple's SVP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said Apple Intelligence doesn't summarize notifications it deems as sensitive. Tech companies are figuring out how to better label AI-generated content. Last year, Meta had to tweak its labeling for images posted on its social networks that were generated or edited using AI after photographers complained that they didn't use AI tools to edit their photos. Google also started adding disclosures for images made using one of its AI tools.

Apple to label notification summaries to indicate use of AI | TechCrunch

Apple said on Monday it would release an update to better indicate that its notification summaries are generated by artificial intelligence. "A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. Apple's notification summaries are helpful, but they can also be quite inaccurate. The summaries are sometimes funny, but they often also cause mild confusion. Last month, BBC complained that the feature misrepresented a headline, with the summary saying that Luigi Mangione, the person charged with the murder of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Last year, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple's SVP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said Apple Intelligence doesn't summarize notifications it deems as sensitive. Tech companies are figuring out how to better label AI-generated content. Last year, Meta had to tweak its labeling for images posted on its social networks that were generated or edited using AI after photographers complained that they didn't use AI tools to edit their photos. Google also started adding disclosures for images made using one its AI tools.