The tech giant has temporarily halted its AI notifications for news and entertainment after a backlash over misleading alerts.
Apple has decided to suspend its AI notification feature aimed at news and entertainment platforms following criticism after it generated inaccurate alerts. The decision to pause was influenced in part by a complaint from the BBC.
Last month Apple Intelligence wrongly made it appear that BBC News had published an article reporting that Luigi Mangione, the man arrested following the murder of a health insurance CEO in New York, had shot himself, when he was alive and well in police custody.
This AI-driven feature was intended to consolidate updates from various news and entertainment applications into one-sentence alerts. Initially made available in iOS 18.1 and later, the feature sought to provide users with concise overviews of relevant content. However, it became evident that the system was producing erroneous information.
In response to the backlash, Apple is planning to reintroduce the notification summaries after implementing several changes aimed at enhancing transparency. Users will be informed that the summaries are still in beta phase, which implies they may contain errors. Future notification summaries will be italicised to distinguish them clearly from traditional alerts. Additionally, users will have the option to disable notifications for specific applications directly from the lock screen.
An Apple spokesperson said: “With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, notification summaries for the news and entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable. We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update.”
The advocacy group Reporters Without Borders also expressed concerns regarding the implications of the Apple Intelligence news feature, indicating that it undermines journalistic credibility and complicates the public’s access to trustworthy information.
In a separate development, Apple recently released a statement asserting that it has never used Siri data for marketing purposes or sold the information. This declaration followed a class action lawsuit settlement concerning allegations that the company monitored private audio via the virtual assistant.
Source: Noah Wire Services
- https://www.axios.com/2025/01/17/apple-ai-news-alerts-fake-headlines – Corroborates Apple’s decision to pause AI-generated news alerts due to errors and the generation of inaccurate alerts.
- https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2025/01/17/XLKM6BFGTFETFPRQOLD4KB5UHE/ – Supports the information that Apple disabled the news summary notification feature due to repeated errors.
- https://www.axios.com/2025/01/17/apple-ai-news-alerts-fake-headlines – Mentions the complaint from the BBC regarding the dissemination of misleading information through automated notifications.
- https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2025/01/17/XLKM6BFGTFETFPRQOLD4KB5UHE/ – Confirms that the AI-driven feature was intended to consolidate updates from various news and entertainment applications into one-sentence alerts.
- https://www.axios.com/2025/01/17/apple-ai-news-alerts-fake-headlines – Details the errors in the system that led to notifications misrepresenting reports, particularly concerning high-profile individuals.
- https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2025/01/17/XLKM6BFGTFETFPRQOLD4KB5UHE/ – Explains Apple’s plan to reintroduce the notification summaries with enhancements such as transparency and user options to disable notifications.
- https://www.axios.com/2025/01/17/apple-ai-news-alerts-fake-headlines – Quotes an Apple spokesperson on the temporary unavailability of notification summaries and future improvements.
- https://www.axios.com/2025/01/17/apple-ai-news-alerts-fake-headlines – Mentions concerns from advocacy groups like Reporters Without Borders regarding the implications of the Apple Intelligence news feature.
- https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2025/01/17/XLKM6BFGTFETFPRQOLD4KB5UHE/ – Clarifies that users can still receive general alerts from other applications and manage them through the settings menu.
- https://www.axios.com/2025/01/17/apple-ai-news-alerts-fake-headlines – References Apple’s statement on not using Siri data for marketing purposes or selling the information, following a class action lawsuit settlement.
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