The BBC has issued a report highlighting significant inaccuracies in news summaries generated by artificial intelligence (AI) engines. The outlet found that 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news contained significant issues, including a failure to differentiate between fact and opinion.
The study also revealed that 19% of AI answers cited by the BBC introduced factual errors, while 13% of quoted statements were either altered or not present in the original article. These inaccuracies can lead to real harm, particularly when shared on social networks.
The BBC has proposed three steps to address this issue: regular evaluations, constructive conversations with AI companies, and increased regulations for large language models. Apple has already taken action by pausing an AI feature that summarizes news notifications after the BBC alerted the company to serious issues.
Some politicians have warned against imposing too many regulations on AI, but others argue that collaboration between governments, tech CEOs, and media is necessary to solve this rapidly evolving problem. The CEO of BBC News emphasizes earning trust with readers as her top priority and calls for urgent cooperation to ensure that AI technology is designed to provide accurate information.
Source: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5138279-bbc-report-ai-summaries-inaccurate