Apple has temporarily disabled its artificial intelligence feature that summarizes news notifications due to repeated errors and false headlines. The company plans to roll out the fix in a future update, but not before warning users that the summaries may be inaccurate.
The issue began when Apple’s AI tool produced misleading or entirely false summaries of news headlines, often identical to regular push notifications. This sparked backlash from a news organization, The BBC, and press freedom groups, who warned of potential dangers to consumers seeking reliable information.
Last month, The BBC complained to Apple about the technology, which created false headlines stating that a murder suspect had shot himself. Similar incidents occurred with New York Times articles being summarized as if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested.
Experts say this is not an isolated incident, but rather a problem common to AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, which can produce “hallucinations” or fabricated information. Large-language models are trained to respond to inputs with plausible-sounding answers, regardless of accuracy.
Apple has taken steps to address the issue, including emphasizing that its AI summaries may be inaccurate and re-enabled for users in a future update. However, critics warn that consumers must not be placed in a position of second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/16/media/apple-ai-news-fake-headlines/index.html