Apple has said it will update an AI feature that has issued inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones, including that a man accused of killing a US insurance boss had shot himself and that tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
The tech company said it was developing a software update that would “further clarify” when news notifications were actually summaries generated by the company’s Apple Intelligence system. It said the update would be rolled out in the coming weeks.
It follows a formal complaint by the BBC last month, when news alerts branded with the corporation’s logo told some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Mangione is alive and being held at a prison in Brookyln.
False news alerts were issued again on Friday last week, when Apple’s AI system summarised BBC app notifications to wrongly say that Nadal had come out as gay. The summaries also claimed that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship hours before the competition began.
“These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect – and in some cases completely contradict – the original BBC content,” the BBC said. “It is critical that Apple urgently addresses these issues as the accuracy of our news is essential in maintaining trust.”
The faulty feature was one of the AI tools released to users of some newer iPhones in December, including the iPhone 16, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max handsets, as well as on some iPads and Macs.
“Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback,” Apple said in a statement to the BBC.
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“A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary,” Apple added.