Apple says it will update AI feature after BBC complaint

Apple has said it will update rather than block a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that has generated false news alerts on its latest iPhones.

The company, in its first acknowledgment of the concerns, said Monday that it was working on a software change to “make more clear” when the notifications are summaries that are generated by the Apple Intelligence system.

The tech giant is facing calls to withdraw the technology after its flawed performance.

BBC Complained Last month, some readers incorrectly reported after an AI-generated summary of its headline reported that Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself.

On Friday, Apple’s AI incorrectly summarized BBC app notifications claiming Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship just hours before it started – and that Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay .

This is the first time that Apple has formally responded to concerns expressed by the BBC about the errors, which appear as if they are coming from within the organization’s apps.

“These summaries from Apple are spreading misinformation that does not reflect the BBC’s original content – ​​and in some cases completely contradicts it,” the BBC said on Monday.

“They are damaging trust not just in the BBC, but in news and information more broadly. It is vital that Apple addresses these issues urgently.”

Apple said its update will arrive “in the coming weeks.”

it is said earlier Its notification summaries – which group together and rewrite previews of multiple recent app notifications into a single alert on the user’s lock screen – are intended to allow users to “scan the key details”.

“Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we’re continuously improving them with the help of user feedback,” the company said in a statement on Monday. He said receiving the summary is optional.

“A software update in the coming weeks will make it more clear that the text being displayed is a summary provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report concerns when they see an unexpected notification summary.”

Speciality, Released as part of a broader suite of AI tools along with other Was launched in the UK in December. It’s only available on its iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max handsets running iOS 18.1 and above, as well as some iPads and Macs.

Several examples of the technique interpreting messages in an overly explicit, literal manner have gone viral on social media.

In November, a ProPublica journalist Thrown light on An inaccurate Apple AI summary of an alert from the New York Times app shows it reported that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the screenshots and The New York Times declined to comment.

Reporters Without Borders, an organization representing the rights and interests of journalists. Apple called out to disable this feature In December.

It said the BBC’s inaccurate headline about Mr Mangione showed that “generative AI services are still too immature to deliver reliable information to the public”.

Apple isn’t alone in introducing generative AI tools that can create text, images and more content when prompted by users — but with varying results.

Google’s AI Overview feature, which provides written summaries of information from results at the top of its search engine in response to user queries, faced criticism last year. to produce some irregular reactions,

A Google spokesperson said at the time that these were ‘isolated instances’ and that the feature was generally working well.