Boosting Transparency: Apple Scraps News Notification Summaries in Latest iOS 18 Beta Update
Apple’s AI-Driven News Summaries Meet a Roadblock in iOS 18 Beta
Apple has unexpectedly halted the practice of providing AI-informed summaries from news apps in the latest iOS 18 beta, following a spate of concerning inaccuracies. This move is a significant blow to those who were hoping to see more accurate and efficient ways to stay up-to-date with the latest news.
What’s happening?
The latest iOS 18.3 third developer beta, released today, no longer shows these summaries for news and entertainment apps, according to a report by 9to5Mac. It appears that Apple is temporarily disabling the feature while working on refining the AI-driven summaries to ensure their accuracy.
Why the change?
The BBC has been particularly affected by the malfunctioning AI, which has mischaracterized some stories and published entirely incorrect information for others. Apple had previously promised a software update would improve the way AI-based summaries handle errors, but it seems that this update has not yet arrived.
What about the future?
Apple has assured users that the notifications will be restored "with a future software update." It’s clear that the company is removing the feature from the firing line for now, giving Apple Intelligence a chance to improve its performance.
Some background
In recent weeks, Apple’s AI-driven summaries have been embroiled in controversy, including a December incident where the BBC News app informed readers that "Luigi Mangione shoots himself," a blatant inaccuracy. The same AI system also incorrectly announced Luke Littler as the PDC World Darts Champion before the final had taken place, and falsely stated that Brazilian tennis player Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
Expert Opinion
"…a feature that was an insult to good journalism" – [Chris Smith, TR’s tech expert]
Dropping this feature until it can be relied upon is the right call, but it should have been withdrawn as soon as the mistakes began happening. In an environment where misinformation is rampant, here was a feature taking reliable reporting and fashioning unreliable reporting – and the organisation had no say in the matter if it wanted to furnish readers with breaking news alerts. It was unacceptable. These notification summaries could be a handy feature, but Apple just cannot bring them back for news apps until Apple Intelligence has a 100% success rate in surmising the multiple headlines without publishing falsehoods.
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