Apple is facing criticism from the BBC over iOS 18.2’s AI-powered notification summaries feature after the feature generated false headlines about a high-profile murder case.
The feature generated a misleading summary indicating that Luigi Mangione, the man arrested following the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself, incorrectly attributing the false information to BBC News.
The BBC has filed a complaint with Apple over the headline summary incident, Reporters Without Borders (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 the first time Apple’s AI-powered notification summaries feature has incorrectly summarized a new report. Apple Intelligence incorrectly summarized an article about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, creating a notification claiming he had been arrested. (The article discussed an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.)
The Apple AI feature is designed to reduce notifications being overwhelming by condensing multiple alerts into a brief summary. The feature is available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 models, and Apple Silicon-powered iPads and Macs running their device’s latest operating system versions.
The summarization feature is enabled by default, but users can be customized or disabled in their device settings.
- Open “Settings” on your iPhone.
- Scroll down “Notifications.” Tap that.
- Tap “Summarize Previews.”
- Here, you can toggle off the switch at the top to completely disable Summarize Previews. Or, you can toggle off the switches for individual apps.
(Image credit: BBC News)
