Apple pauses AI-generated news alerts over inaccuracy issues

Apple has paused its artificial intelligence (AI) tool that summarises news headlines after a number of errors drew complaints from news organisations and campaigners.

On Thursday, the tech giant released a beta software update to developers which disabled the AI feature for news and entertainment headlines – an update that will eventually reach all users – and said it was working on improvements for the tool.

The feature is part of the iPhone maker’s Apple Intelligence tools it launched late last year – the company’s first major steps into generative AI technology, which has become the biggest trend in the industry over the last two years since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

According to tech industry website MacRumors, Apple has temporarily disabled the tool for the news and entertainment categories while it works on improvements but plans to bring them back in a future software update.

In addition, its report said Apple has added a warning below the notification summaries switch in the Settings app which warns users that it is a beta feature and that “summaries may contain errors”.

The aim of the notification summaries tool was to group together a string of notifications from individual apps into a single, quick, bite-size alert to help users save time.

However, a number of news organisations have raised concerns or complained directly to Apple since the tool was launched after a number of incidents where it created false headlines when attempting to summarise news stories.

Many had also urged the tech giant to suspend its use of the feature, and a number of press freedom groups have also spoken out about the tool, warning that it posed a risk to people attempting to seek out reliable information.

In December, the BBC complained to Apple about the tool after it created a number of false headlines based on BBC news app alerts, including one stating that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealth chief executive Brian Thompson, had shot himself.

In response to that complaint, Apple told the BBC earlier this month that an update to Apple Intelligence would be rolled out “in the coming weeks”, and also noted that using the summarisation feature was optional.

Apple has not responded to a request for comment.