Apple Pauses AI News Summaries After False Alerts

Apple Temporarily Halts AI-Powered Notification Summaries

Apple has suspended the use of AI-generated notification summaries for applications focused on news and entertainment. This decision follows criticism regarding the creation of inaccurate news alerts.

Furthermore, the company is implementing broader modifications to notification summaries to enhance user clarity and understanding.

Disabling Summaries for News and Entertainment

Within the most recent developer previews for iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Apple is completely disabling notification summaries for all news and entertainment apps.

These summaries will be reinstated in a subsequent update, but only after undergoing significant improvements and refinement.

Response to BBC Complaint

This adjustment arrives shortly after the BBC formally expressed concerns to Apple. A specific article was inaccurately summarized, falsely reporting that Luigi Mangione, accused in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had died by suicide.

Enhanced Transparency for All Users

Beyond the removal of summaries from certain app categories, all notification summaries will now be visually distinguished by being displayed in italics.

This formatting change aims to help users easily differentiate between summarized notifications and standard alerts.

User Control and Beta Designation

Users will gain the ability to disable notification summaries on a per-app basis directly from their device’s Lock Screen.

Additionally, when users initially enable the notification summaries feature, they will receive a notification within the Settings app explicitly stating that it is currently in beta.

This notification will also inform users that the feature may occasionally produce errors.

Clarification of AI Involvement

These changes align with Apple’s previous announcement that it would release an update to “further clarify” the origin of the text within notification summaries.

The company indicated the update would emphasize that the content is generated by Apple Intelligence.

Release Timeline

Although a public beta is anticipated to be released next week, the exact date for the general availability of iOS 18.3 remains unknown.