Apple urged to remove AI summarisation feature after it falsely shared news headlines spark backlash

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a press freedom organization, has reportedly urged Apple to remove its newly introduced Apple Intelligence feature, which summarizes news stories, after it generated false news headlines. The move follows an incident in which the feature summarised news stories and generated an incorrect headline about a BBC report.

Last week, Apple’s AI tool shared a push notification summarising the BBC report stating that Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, had shot himself. However, BBC did not report this and later reached out to the company to address the issue.

According to the reports, Vincent Berthier, RSF’s technology and journalism desk chief, called on Apple to “act responsibly by removing this feature.”

“AIs are probability machines, and facts can’t be decided by a roll of the dice. The automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet’s credibility and a danger to the public’s right to reliable information on current affairs,” the report quoted him saying.

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“More broadly, the journalist body said it is “very concerned about the risks posed to media outlets by new A.I. tools, noting that the incident emphasizes how A.I. remains “too immature to produce reliable information for the public, and should not be allowed on the market for such uses,” he added.

Previously, Apple’s AI tool was the subject of yet another controversy. The AI summed up a story about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming he had been arrested. The original story stated that the International Criminal Court had issued a warrant against him.

For those unversed, the tech giant added the feature with the iOS 18.2 update with an aim to assist iPhone, iPad, and Mac users in accessing summarised information such as paragraphs, bullet points, or lists. Summaries are optional, but they still appear under the publisher’s banner.

However, Apple has not made any official statement about the complaints and the AI feature at the time of writing this article.

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Ashish Singh

Ashish Singh is the Chief Copy Editor at Digit. Previously, he worked as a Senior Sub-Editor with Jagran English from 2022, and has been a journalist since 2020, with experience at Times Internet. Ashish specializes in Technology. In his free time, you can find him exploring new gadgets, gaming, and discovering new places. View Full Profile