Apple Faces Criticism Over AI-Generated News Headline Summaries

Apple is facing calls to remove its AI-powered notification summaries feature after it generated false headlines about a high-profile murder case, drawing criticism from a major journalism organization.

bbc news headlines notification summary

Updated to iOS 18.2? Then you may have received this notification (image credit: BBC News)

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged Apple to disable the Apple Intelligence notification feature, which rolled out globally last week as part of its iOS 18.2 software update. The request comes after the feature created a misleading headline suggesting that murder suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself, incorrectly attributing the false information to BBC News.

Mangione in fact remains under maximum security at Huntingdon State Correctional Institution in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, after having been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York.

The BBC has confirmed that it filed a complaint with Apple regarding the headline incident. The RSF has since argued that summaries of the type prove that "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public."

Vincent Berthier, head of RSF's technology and journalism desk, said that "AIs are probability machines, and facts can't be decided by a roll of the dice." He called the automated production of false information "a danger to the public's right to reliable information."

This isn't an isolated incident, either. The New York Times reportedly experienced a similar issue when Apple Intelligence incorrectly summarized an article about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, creating a notification claiming he had been arrested when the original article discussed an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Apple's AI feature aims to reduce notification overload by condensing alerts into brief summaries, and is currently available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 models, and select iPads and Macs running the latest operating system versions. The summarization feature is enabled by default, but users can manually disable it through their device settings.

Apple has not yet commented on the controversy or indicated whether it plans to modify or remove the feature.

(Via BBC News.)

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Top Rated Comments

Mr_Ed Avatar
15 weeks ago
This crap’s just not ready for prime time. I still don’t understand the urge to push out these AI features few are actually asking for.
Score: 76 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kirky29 Avatar
15 weeks ago
The only reason I keep mine on is that it summarizes my partner’s messages to me, and some of them make me laugh!
'Lorna needs money now', 'Lorna hungry, will get cranky if not eat soon', 'Lorna late for work, ate chickens instead'. The other notifications are actually annoying and not informative for me one bit!
Score: 70 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rayansb Avatar
15 weeks ago
Thanks for letting me know this can be turned off.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nfl46 Avatar
15 weeks ago

This crap’s just not ready for prime time. I still don’t understand the urge to push out these AI features few are actually asking for.
They needed something to market the iPhone 16 series since they couldn’t find much of anything else.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr_Ed Avatar
15 weeks ago

Was the source article well written? Could be a case of junk in, junk out. Would be ironic if it’s from an AI written article.
Define “well written”. In my world, there is no level of “bad writing” that should ever result in a false (as in, not stated anywhere in the article) fact being inferred from the writing, regardless of source.
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarpalMac Avatar
15 weeks ago

This crap’s just not ready for prime time. I still don’t understand the urge to push out these AI features few are actually asking for.
It is all a marketing teams wet dream. I myself am immediately repelled by any product or service touting such nonsense.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)