Apple has said it will update an artificial intelligence 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 the 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 in December, when news alerts branded with the corporation’s logo told some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Mangione is alive and being held at a prison in Brooklyn.
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 BBC is not the only news organisation to have its alerts misrepresented by Apple’s feature. In November, a ProPublica journalist flagged an inaccurate Apple AI summary of alerts from the New York Times that wrongly claimed that Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested.
The faulty feature was one of the AI tools released to users of some newer iPhones in December, as part of efforts to compete with a growing range of tech firms and smartphone manufacturers deploying generative AI in services for consumers. The Apple feature has been rolled out to owners of 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.
“A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarisation provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary,” Apple added.
Apple said it would not comment beyond what was provided to the BBC.
But the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) – one of the world’s largest unions representing news industry staff – said a system update did not go far enough, and called for a full removal of the AI feature.
“Apple must act swiftly, removing Apple Intelligence to ensure it plays no role in contributing to the misinformation already prevalent and causing harm to journalism online,” the NUJ general secretary, Laura Davison said. “At a time where access to accurate reporting has never been more important, the public must not be placed in a position of second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive.”
The media non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders said labelling content as AI-generated did not fix the problem but rather transferred the responsibility to users, who would be expected to check if information was true or not.
“While we welcome Apple’s acknowledgment that its AI offering needs improvement, the proposed update looks like an implicit admission that making the feature more trustworthy is not currently an option,” said Vincent Berthier, the head of the organisation’s technology and journalism desk. “We therefore reiterate our call for Apple to remove it.”
“AIs are probability machines, and facts can’t be decided by a roll of the dice. RSF calls on Apple to act responsibly by removing this feature,” Vincent Berthier, the head of RSF’s technology and journalism desk, said. “The automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet’s credibility and a danger to the public’s right to reliable information on current affairs.”
