Apple Pauses AI News Alerts After Generating False Reports
By Movieguide® Contributor
Apple canceled its AI news alerts after the program generated and promoted several false stories.
Deadline reported that one alert generated by Apple’s AI falsely told readers that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Another alert said a darts star won a championship before the championship even began.
Apple Intelligence’s new summaries have received scrutiny for several months now, with BBC even calling on the company to remove the feature. Other groups have also called out the problem.
“Innovation must never come at the expense of the right of citizens to receive reliable information,” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement.
“This feature should not be rolled out again until there is zero risk it will publish inaccurate headlines,” RSF’s Vincent Berthier added.
An Apple spokesperson told BBC that the company is “working on improvements.”
“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. We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update,” they said.
READ MORE: ARE AI FEARS BECOMING REALITY? CHATBOT LIES TO TESTERS
Jonathan Bright, head of AI for public services at the Alan Turing Institute, expressed his concerns over what he calls “hallucinations.”
“There is a huge imperative [for tech firms] to be the first one to release new features. Hallucinations — where an AI model makes things up — are a ‘real concern,’ he told BBC, “And as yet firms don’t have a way of systematically guaranteeing that AI models will never hallucinate, apart from human oversight.”
He added, “As well as misinforming the public, such hallucinations have the potential to further damage trust in the news media.”
Concern over the use of AI has been growing in recent years.
A 2022 survey from Pew Research found that “a larger share of Americans say they are ‘more concerned than excited’ by the increased use of AI in daily life than say the opposite.”
READ MORE: AI USE ON THE RISE AMONG U.S. ADULTS, STUDY FINDS
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