Apple Plans To Update AI Summary Feature After BBC Complaint

Date: January 07, 2025

After BBC complained that Apple’s AI-generated notification summaries miscommunicated BBC’s shooting news headline.

BBC complained to Apple last month that one of the Apple Intelligence feature is misleading its news headline notifications. The AI-generated notifications summary feature falsely summarized a high-profile murder news of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Source: BBC News

Based on the AI-generated summary, instead of sharing that Luigi Mangione allegedly shot Brian Thompson, the notification said that ‘Luigi Mangione shoots himself.’ BBC’s complaint to Apple states that the AI feature is misleading BBC’s in-app community with false headlines. The complaint initially requested to rectify the issue and pause the Apple Intelligence feature until correction happens.

Apple has responded to the complaint, saying that it will update the feature rather than pausing it. The company also said that it is working on a software change to provide added clarity to its notifications. The clarity will be on the aspects of providing clear labeling whenever the Apple Intelligence creates an AI-generated summary.

"These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect – and in some cases completely contradict – the original BBC content. It is critical that Apple urgently addresses these issues as the accuracy of our news is essential in maintaining trust,” the BBC said on Monday.

Apple Intelligence has been in the controversial spotlight for more falsely generated headlines. On Friday, its AI-generated summary misled BBC’s app notifications, claiming that Luke Littler has won the PDC World Darts Championship, hours before it even began. The AI feature also miscommunicated that Spanish Tennis player Rafael Nadal has come out of the closet as gay.

Apple’s response marks one of the first official responses from the company nearly after a month of BBC complaining about the ongoing issue. The company’s official response said, "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary."

Though the errors in its freshly rolled out AI feature does cause a major impact, it is isolated to devices that are eligible to run Apple Intelligence, including iPhone 16 series, 15 Pro, and 15 Pro Max. iPads and MAC devices that can run Apple Intelligence are also part of the misled group of devices.