Apple Suspends AI Generated News Alerts After Complaints Of Misleading Headline Errors
Apple has officially suspended a new artificial intelligence feature on its devices that was meant to summarize news headlines. The suspension comes after new outlets criticized and complained about multiple errors that made the summaries misleading and nearly completely false.
A spokesperson for Apple said that the company was “working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update.”
The BBC reported that the journalism body Reporters Without Borders stated these errors are a prime example of major tech companies rushing to roll out new innovative features and how dangerous that can be.
“Innovation must never come at the expense of the right of citizens to receive reliable information. This feature should not be rolled out again until there is zero risk it will publish inaccurate headlines,” RSF’s Vincent Berthier said.
The BBC itself was one of the major outlets to make a complaint after the AI feature made a headline falsely telling readers that the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, had shot himself.
According to the BBC’s report, the feature also put out inaccurate headlines from Sky News, The New York Times, and the Washington Post.
“There is a huge imperative [for tech firms] to be the first one to release new features,” said Jonathan Bright, head of AI for public services at the Alan Turing Institute.
Apple has disabled the feature for news and entertainment apps a month after initial complaints were made.
“With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” an Apple spokesperson said.
“We’re pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and is pausing the summarization feature for news,” a BBC spokesperson said.
“We look forward to working with them constructively on next steps. Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to audiences which is essential to building and maintaining trust.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.