Apple plans to disable AI summaries of news announcements

Less than six months after rolling out a series of artificial intelligence features, Apple is disabling one of its signature features: aggregating and summarizing news announcements.

The company revealed the change Thursday in a software update for developers. It followed an outcry from British media that Apple’s software was misrepresenting news reports.

In December, the BBC was among the first to call on Apple to change its software. The call came after the BBC sent readers a notice about Luigi Mangione, the man arrested in the New York City killing of Brian Thompson, the health insurance executive. Some iPhones summarized BBC news stories by saying, “Luigi Mangione shoots himself.” He didn’t have that.

In addition to disabling news feeds, Apple said it would add a warning to users who opted in to receive notification feeds for other apps. The warning means that the function is still under development and that there may be errors.

The flawed summaries feature is the latest in a series of problems that have marred new AI products. Last year, Google unveiled a chatbot that recommended people eat rocks and use glue to make pizza. Microsoft exposed features of an AI computer due to security vulnerabilities. And Humane, a start-up that raised $240 million for a device called Ai Pin, was panned by tech critics because its system sometimes sent requests inaccurately.

The early struggles with AI products have raised questions about the technology’s near-term potential. The technology, which can answer questions, create images and write code, has been heralded for its potential to disrupt businesses and create trillions of dollars in economic value. But some on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley have expressed doubts that AI will quickly produce enough benefits to justify its staggering costs.

“It’s hard and it’s early and there’s not yet a clear value proposition for mainstream consumers,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, a technology research firm. “It’s going to take time and it’s going to be a really slow roll. Nobody knows yet what somebody is going to look at and say, ‘That’s really valuable.'”

In a note to developers, Apple said it was working to improve notification overviews for news and entertainment apps. It plans to make the feature available again in a future software update.

A BBC spokesman said it was pleased Apple had heard their concerns and decided to make a change. “Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to audiences, which is critical to building and maintaining trust,” he added.

The news of Apple’s changes was previously reported by several sites dedicated to Apple, including MacRumors and 9to5Mac.

Apple was among the last of tech’s biggest companies to join the artificial intelligence arms race. Last year, the company introduced iPhones with an AI software system called Apple Intelligence. It said the system would be able to sort messages, offer typing suggestions and create a more capable Siri powered by generative artificial intelligence.

But the features weren’t available on the iPhones that Apple started shipping in September. Instead, over the past few months it has gradually introduced some features, such as tools to improve emails and the ability to access OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot through Siri.

The AI ​​features are only available on iPhone 15 and 16 models. The company has limited its availability to English-speaking countries, including the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In April, Apple plans to add support for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other languages.

The company made Apple Intelligence the focus of its iPhone 16 promotions. But its lack of availability in some key markets, such as China, dampened demand for the devices. Apple’s share of the global smartphone market fell to 18 percent last year from 19 percent in 2023, according to Counterpoint Research, a firm that tracks device sales.

“There are a lot of big questions about the initial efforts to do on-device AI,” said Bob O’Donnell, principal analyst at TECHnalysis Research, a market research firm. “In the long run, it will undoubtedly be the right way to go, but it is not a trivial task.”