Apple says it is rolling out an update to its AI summaries feature after it was accused of being “out of control” and potentially spreading misinformation.
The criticism came over a tool on iPhones and other devices that aims to use AI to summarise long notifications to make them quicker to read. But in recent weeks it has led to criticism from the BBC, which lodged a complaint with Apple after the feature wrongly suggested that UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself.
The BBC has pointed to a variety of problems since, including claims that the system had wrongly summarised a headline about Rafael Nadal to suggest that he is gay. “These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect – and in some cases completely contradict – the original BBC content,” the BBC said.
The BBC had previously reported on calls to turn off the feature entirely from groups including Reporters Without Borders. Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger told the BBC that the feature was “clearly not ready”, is “out of control” and could damage trust in news reporting if it is not pulled.
Apple said in a statement to the BBC that it would release a new software update “in the coming weeks” that will make it more clear that those summaries are being generated by its AI tools.
Apple’s summary feature is still in beta and the company has suggested that it may come with some errors, asking users to report concerns if they see “an unexpected notification summary”. The summaries are generated on the device itself, meaning that they will appear differently for individual users.
The summaries appear on notifications from all kinds of apps, not just news ones, and Apple’s marketing materials have primarily pointed to busy apps such as group chats as potential uses. It says they are intended to “help condense the information most important to you” and to help users “scan them for key details, such as when a group chat is particularly active”.
Since its release, users have pointed out a number of odd summaries from the system. One viral tweet showed the system turning a seemingly lighthearted message about a hike having “killed me” into a more alarming message about suicide, for instance.
The feature is part of the broad suite of Apple Intelligence tools that were introduced last summer and have been rolling out to Apple’s newest devices since. They also include other features such as the ability to have AI help with writing text or generating images.
The summaries can be turned off entirely or adjusted to only show for given apps. That is done by opening the Settings app, tapping notifications and then either pressing to turn “Summarise Previews” off entirely, or choosing a specific app.