Less than six months after rolling out a slew of AI features, Apple is turning off one of its signature features: aggregating and summarizing news alerts.
The company revealed the change Thursday in a software update for developers. It follows an outcry from British media that Apple’s software is misinterpreting news reports.
In December, the BBC was among the first to urge Apple to change its software. The call came after the BBC sent readers an alert about Luigi Maggione, the man arrested after the murder of health insurance executive Brian Thompson in New York. Some iPhones summarized the BBC news by saying: “Luigi Maggione shoots himself.” He hadn’t.
In addition to turning off news summaries, Apple said it will add a warning for users who choose to receive notification summaries for other apps. The warning will say that the feature is still under development and there may be bugs.
The potential for flawed abstracts is the latest in a series of issues that have dogged new AI products. Last year, Google introduced a chatbot that recommended people eat rocks and use glue to make pizza. Microsoft suspended operations on an artificial intelligence computer due to security vulnerabilities. And Humane, a startup that raised $240 million for a device called Ai Pin, has been scrutinized by technical reviewers because its system sometimes makes requests inaccurately.
Early battles 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 Silicon Valley have expressed doubts about whether AI will quickly produce enough benefits to justify its staggering cost.
“It’s difficult and it’s early and there’s not yet a clear value proposition for mainstream consumers,” said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of Creative Strategies, a technology research firm. “It’s going to take time and it’s going to be a really slow process. No one knows yet what someone will look at and say, “This is really valuable.”
In a note to developers, Apple said it is working to improve notification summaries for news and entertainment apps. It plans to make the feature available again in a future software update.
A BBC spokesman said he was pleased Apple had listened to their concerns and decided to make a change. “Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to the public, which is essential to building and maintaining trust,” he added.
The news of Apple’s changes was reported earlier by various Apple sites, including MacRumors and 9to5Mac.
Apple was among the latest of the major tech companies to enter the AI ​​arms race. Last year, the company introduced iPhones with an AI software system called Apple Intelligence. He said the system will be able to sort messages, offer writing suggestions and create a more capable Siri powered by genetic artificial intelligence.
But the features weren’t available on iPhones that Apple started 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 ​​features are only available on the 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 iPhone 16 promotions. But the lack of availability in some key markets, such as China, dampened demand for the devices. Apple’s share of the global smartphone market fell to 18 percent last year from 19 percent in 2023, according to Counterpoint Research, a firm that tracks device sales.
“There are a lot of big questions about the initial attempts to make artificial intelligence on the device,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, a market research firm. “In the long run, it will undoubtedly be the right path, but it is not a trivial task.”
