In December, the BBC was among the first to urge Apple to change its software. The call came after the BBC sent readers a notification about Luigi Mangione, the man arrested after the killing of Brian Thompson, a health care insurance executive, in New York City. Some iPhones summarized BBC news stories saying, “Luigi Mangione shoots himself.” He had not.
In addition to disabling news summaries, Apple said it would be adding a warning for users who opt in to receive notification summaries for other apps. The warning will say that the feature is still in development and that there could be errors.
The flawed summaries feature is the latest in a series of issues that have marred new AI products. Last year, Google unveiled a chatbot that recommended people eat rocks and use glue to make pizza. Microsoft postponed features in an AI computer because of security vulnerabilities. And Humane, a startup that raised $240 million for a device called the Ai Pin, was panned by tech reviewers because its system sometimes fielded requests inaccurately.
The early struggles with AI products have fueled questions about the technology’s near-term potential. The technology, which can answer questions, create images and write code, has been heralded for its potential to disrupt businesses and create trillions of dollars in economic value. But some on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley have expressed doubts about whether AI will quickly produce enough benefits to justify its staggering costs.
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“It’s hard and it’s early, and there’s not a clear value proposition yet for mainstream consumers,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, a tech research firm. “It is going to take time and it’s going to be a real slow roll. No one knows yet what someone is going to look at and say, ‘That’s really valuable.'” In a note to developers, Apple said it was working to improve summaries of notifications for news and entertainment apps. It plans to make the feature available again in a future software update.
A BBC spokesperson said it was pleased that Apple had heard its concerns and decided to make a change. “Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to audiences, which is essential to building and maintaining trust,” he added.
The news of Apple’s changes was reported earlier by several websites devoted to Apple, including MacRumors and 9to5Mac.
Apple was among the last of tech’s biggest companies to enter the AI arms race. Last year, the company introduced iPhones with an AI software system called Apple Intelligence. It said the system would be able to sort messages, offer writing suggestions and create a more capable Siri powered by generative AI.
But the features weren’t available on the iPhones that Apple began shipping in September. Instead, over the past few months, it has gradually introduced some features, such as tools to improve emails and the ability to access ChatGPT through Siri.
The AI capabilities are only available on iPhone 15 and 16 models. The company has limited its availability to English-speaking countries, including the United States, Australia and Britain. In April, Apple plans to add support for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other languages.
The company made Apple Intelligence the focus of its promotions of the iPhone 16. But its lack of availability in some key markets, such as China, weakened demand for the devices. Apple’s share of the global smartphone market fell to 18% last year from 19% in 2023, according to Counterpoint Research, a firm that tracks device sales.
“There’s a lot of big questions about the initial efforts to do on-device AI,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, a market research firm. “In the long run, it will unquestionably be the right way to go, but it’s not a trivial task.”
