In less than a fortnight after Apple released its long-awaited Apple Intelligence AI features in countries such as Australia and the UK, there are already calls for it to kill one of the platform’s key features to summarise notifications.

On 13 December, the BBC complained to Apple following a summary generated by the AI feature of news notifications announced the suicide of Luigi Mangione, the main suspect in the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. The AI-powered summary claimed BBC News had published an article claiming Mangione had shot himself – which was completely false.

Now, the group Reporters Without Borders has called on Apple to remove the technology saying that the generative AI feature is “threatening reliable journalism”.

 

The journalism body said that it was very concerned about the risks posed to media outlets by the AI technology which “is incapable of producing reliable information in a consistent, trustworthy manner.”

In a statement it added that the incident should illustrate that “generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public, and should not be allowed on the market for such uses.”

“AIs are probability machines, and facts can’t be decided by a roll of the dice. RSF calls on Apple to act responsibly by removing this feature,” said Vincent Berthier, Head of RSF’s Technology and Journalism Desk.

“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.”

Apple is yet to comment on the entire episode.

 

The company’s Apple Intelligence notification summary feature allows users to group notifications. It claims that customers might find this feature useful to help reduce the interruptions caused by ongoing notifications.

However, even before the BBC complained, another instance of news being distorted and falsely reported in the summaries came to light in November. On 21 November, three articles from the New York Times were reportedly grouped together in one notification – with one part claiming “Netanyahu arrested”, in reference to the Israeli prime minister.

That false summary was generated after the AI feature summarised a report about the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.