Apple Intelligence will stop summarizing news notifications (for now)

Here’s one small stumble in the inexorable march of artificial intelligence: Apple Intelligence is putting a pause on summarizing news notifications. Last month, the BBC News raised alarms when the AI feature started attributing alarmingly inaccurate news to its organization. (For instance, athlete Rafael Nadal coming out as gay or alleged assassin Luigi Mangione shooting himself.) On Thursday, a spokesperson for the company announced that Apple’s latest beta software releases, “Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” per the BBC. 

The BBC and other AI watchdogs have kept up pressure on Apple under the very reasonable concerns that the summary feature was not only spreading misinformation, but also corroding the already tenuous trust between the public and the press. Last week, Apple responded to those concerns by saying its next software update “will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence.” Many, including journalism orgs like Reporters Without Borders (RSF), weren’t satisfied with this response, which “doesn’t fix the problem at all,” as Vincent Berthier, head of RSF’s technology and journalism desk, told the BBC. “It just transfers the responsibility to users, who—in an already confusing information landscape—will be expected to check if information is true or not.”

Surprisingly, Apple seems to have listened and disabled the feature altogether rather than going for the “clarifying” angle. However, you’ll note the use of “temporarily” in Apple’s announcement. The tech giant is still “working on improvements” for the feature “and will make them available in a future software update,” per Apple’s spokesperson. What improvements can be made to summarize a journalist’s work better than their own headline is unclear, but Apple isn’t going to let that tricky problem get in the way of progress. In the meantime, AI summaries for other apps will appear in italicized text. (Unless you opt out of Apple Intelligence altogether, or just the notification summary feature by going to Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications.) 

The suspension of this feature may only be temporary, but its opponents will take the win nevertheless. “We’re pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and is pausing the summarisation feature for news,” a BBC spokesperson said. “We look forward to working with them constructively on next steps. Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to audiences which is essential to building and maintaining trust.”