Apple recently suspended its artificial intelligence feature that generated inaccurate news headline summaries.
The company received a complaint from the BBC after the AI service, branded with the BBC logo, incorrectly alerted some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who was charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson, had committed suicide.
Other inaccurate alerts featuring the BBC logo included one falsely claiming that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts final before the event occurred and another incorrectly stating that tennis player Rafael Nadal had publicly announced he was gay.
In response, Apple announced that it would temporarily remove the feature in an upcoming software update.
The errors also affected other news outlets, including an incorrect alert under The New York Times logo that falsely reported the arrest of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Notification summaries for the news and entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” Apple stated. “We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update.”
These news summaries are part of Apple’s initiative to integrate more AI technologies into its offerings, marketed as Apple Intelligence. This service is available in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, but not in the EU or China.
Initially, Apple planned to modify the feature rather than remove it.
In the UK, the National Union of Journalists called for its withdrawal to “ensure it plays no role in contributing to the misinformation already prevalent and causing harm to journalism online.”
The feature compiled news notifications into a single summary that appeared on users’ lock screens. Apple is now refining a version that will alert iPhone users about potential inaccuracies by using italicized text.
