Less than six months after rolling out a suite of artificial intelligence features, Apple is disabling one of its signature features: news notification aggregation and summarization.
The company revealed the change Thursday in a software update for developers. This followed complaints from British media that Apple's software was misrepresenting news reports.
In December, the BBC was among the first to urge Apple to make changes to its software. The call came after the BBC sent readers a notice about Luigi Mangione, who was arrested in connection with the murder of New York City health insurance executive Brian Thompson. Some iPhones summarized a BBC news article as “Luigi Mangione commits suicide with gunshot.” he didn't.
In addition to disabling news summaries, Apple said it will add a warning for users who choose to receive notification summaries for other apps. A warning indicates that this feature is still under development and may contain errors.
The flawed overview feature is the latest in a series of issues that have marred new AI products. Last year, Google launched a chatbot that encouraged people to eat rocks and make pizza using glue. Microsoft postponed AI computer functionality due to security vulnerabilities. And Humane, a startup that raised $240 million for a device called Ai Pin, was slammed by technology critics because its system sometimes handled requests inaccurately.
Early struggles with AI products have raised questions about the technology's near-term potential. This technology, which can answer questions, create images, and write code, is being hailed as having the 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 generate enough benefits to justify its staggering costs.
“This is difficult and premature, and there is still no clear value proposition for mainstream consumers,” said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of tech research firm Creative Strategies. “It's going to take time and it's going to be a really slow rollout. No one knows yet what someone will see and say, 'This is really worth it.'”
In a note to developers, Apple said it is working on improving the notification summary for news and entertainment apps. We plan to make this feature available again in a future software update.
A BBC spokesperson said they were pleased that Apple had listened to their concerns and decided to make the changes. “Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to our viewers, which is essential to building and maintaining trust,” he added.
News of Apple's changes was previously reported by several Apple-focused websites, including MacRumors and 9to5Mac.
Apple was one of the last of the technology industry's biggest companies to enter the AI arms race. Last year, the company introduced iPhones equipped with an AI software system called Apple Intelligence. The system says it can classify messages, provide writing suggestions, and create a more capable Siri using generative artificial intelligence.
However, this feature was not available on iPhones that Apple began shipping in September. Instead, several features have been gradually introduced over the past few months, including tools to improve email and the ability to access OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot through Siri.
AI features are only available on iPhone 15 and 16 models. The company limits its availability to English-speaking countries such as the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Apple plans to add support for languages such as Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish in April.
The company has made Apple Intelligence a focus of its iPhone 16 promotion. However, the unavailability of Apple Intelligence in some major markets, such as China, slowed demand for the device. According to Counterpoint Research, which tracks device sales, Apple's share of the global smartphone market fell from 19% in 2023 to 18% last year.
“There are a lot of big questions surrounding early efforts to enable on-device AI,” said Bob O’Donnell, principal analyst at market research firm TECHnaracy Research. “In the long term, there is no doubt that it is the right path, but it is not an easy task.”
