Apple disables news summarization feature after inaccurate AI summaries
Apple temporarily disabled an AI news summarization feature in iOS 18.3 beta after it repeatedly produced inaccurate or fabricated news summaries that news organizations said spread misinformation while crediting them as sources. The company said it would improve the feature and relaunch it in a future update.
What happened
Apple temporarily disabled an AI-powered news summarization feature in iOS 18.3 beta after the feature produced inaccurate summaries of news articles. News organizations including BBC, New York Times, and Washington Post reported that the feature generated false or fabricated headlines, while attributing them to the original news sources.
Reported impact
News organizations complained that the feature's inaccurate summaries spread misinformation and undermined trust in news content. In one instance, Apple incorrectly reported that a murder suspect had died by suicide. The feature also produced incorrect summaries of Washington Post headlines.
Index analysis
The failure occurred during the beta testing phase of iOS 18.3. News organizations including the British Journalists Union and Reporters Without Borders called on Apple to discontinue the feature, citing concerns that it was not ready for deployment.
Governance controls
Apple stated it would continue developing the feature and relaunch it in a future software update. In the latest beta version, users can disable notifications related to news summarization, and AI-generated summaries are displayed in italics to distinguish them from other notifications.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.