The US tech giant’s alert service had triggered multiple complaints over factual mistakes.
Apple has pulled its AI-generated news alert service following complaints about fake content. The US tech giant released a software update on Thursday that disables the feature for news and entertainment notifications, according to multiple media reports.
The move was prompted by several instances of fake news. Notably, a claim that Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself – attributed to the BBC. Other fake reports included a notification stating that darts player Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship before the event occurred, and false claim that tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
The inaccuracies led the BBC to file a formal complaint with Apple in December, because the fake summaries were displayed with the British state broadcaster’s logo.
“With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” BBC quoted an Apple spokesperson as saying on Friday.
“We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update,” added the spokesperson.
According to the BBC, the decision to pull the feature “speaks volumes about just how damaging the errors made by its much-hyped new AI feature actually are.”
Following the incident, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders warned that “generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public, and should not be allowed on the market for such uses.”
A July 2024 study by Cornell University in New York described the prevailing “hallucinations” of top AI models as “a major challenge.”
The integration of AI into journalism has become increasingly prevalent. A 2023 survey conducted by the London School of Economics suggested that nearly three in four news organizations were using AI in either news gathering, production or distribution.
