Apple calls a halt to AI notification summaries amid backlash

17 Jan 2025

Image: © saiko3p/Stock.adobe.com

The pause comes after the BBC complained about the feature for spreading false information.

Apple will temporarily pause the AI notification feature for news and entertainment platforms after facing serious backlash over the generation of false alerts. The company is set to introduce changes to their notification summaries, in order to allow for greater transparency. 

It is understood that the temporarily disabled notification summaries will return as a feature in a future software update, with several changes made. For example, there will be an added message that it is a beta feature and therefore prone to error. Additionally, future summaries will be italicised to mark them as clearly distinct from traditional notifications. Users will also be able to disable summaries for specific apps straight from the lock screen. 

The changes come after serious backlash from the BBC, which issued a complaint after Apple’s AI technology generated false information regarding high-profile figures and issued the notifications seemingly from the BBC’s own platform. Reporters without Borders, an advocacy group, also called for changes regarding the Apple Intelligence news feature, as they said it was a blow to credibility in the media and a danger to the public’s right to reliable information. 

Available on compatible devices in iOS 18.1 and later, ‌‌Apple Intelligence‌‌ notification summaries are designed to gather information from specific news and entertainment apps, generating one-sentence overviews of relevant content, via an alert or notification format. However, problems quickly arose when it was apparent that the short summaries were pulling incorrect details and using them to inform the alerts. 

While news summaries are currently disabled, Apple’s feature is still available in relation to other apps on people’s devices, but it can be switched off in the notifications section in settings.

In a statement to SiliconRepublic.com, an Apple spokesperson said: “With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3 and macOS Sequoia 15.3, notification summaries for the news and entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable. We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update.”

Earlier this month, Apple agreed to pay $95m to US-based users whose communications were inadvertently recorded by the “unintended” activation of Siri. In a statement, claimed that it has never used Siri data for marketing or sold it for any purpose.

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Updated, 9.25am, 17 January 2025: This article was amended to include a statement from Apple. 

Laura Varley is the Careers reporter for Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com