Apple Suspends AI News Summaries After Backlash Over False Headlines
Apple has temporarily disabled its AI-powered news summaries after widespread criticism over repeated inaccuracies. The feature, introduced as part of the company's Apple Intelligence suite, aimed to condense multiple notifications into a single alert but frequently produced misleading or outright false headlines.
The issue gained traction after the BBC complained about an AI-generated alert falsely stating that Luigi Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Other errors included a notification that wrongly claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested and another stating that Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
The AI summarization tool had been positioned as a key feature in Apple’s latest software update, part of the company’s push into artificial intelligence. However, its failure highlights the challenges tech companies face in implementing AI-driven content generation without compromising accuracy. Apple has since added a disclaimer to AI-generated notifications, stating that they may produce "unexpected results."
Media outlets and press freedom groups called for Apple to remove the feature, warning that AI-generated misinformation could harm public trust in journalism. The National Union of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders also criticized the feature, calling it “a danger to the public’s right to reliable information.”
On Thursday, Apple released a beta software update that disabled AI-generated summaries for news and entertainment apps. “With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” an Apple spokesperson confirmed. The company said it is working on improvements and plans to reintroduce the feature in a future update.
Users have also been given the ability to disable AI summaries for specific apps by swiping left on notifications—a feature that wasn’t available before. On the same day the suspension was announced, Apple’s stock fell 4%, its worst trading day since August.
Apple’s struggles with AI accuracy reflect broader industry challenges. Many large language models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have been known to produce “hallucinations”—fabricated but plausible-sounding information. “There is no knowledge of truth there,” explained AI expert Suresh Venkatasubramanian, who co-authored the White House’s AI Bill of Rights blueprint.
Despite the backlash, Apple insists that AI remains a central part of its future plans. The company has not given a timeline for when AI-generated news summaries will return, but it says the technology will be improved before it is reintroduced. “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,” a BBC spokesperson said.
For now, Apple users will have to rely on traditional notifications from news organizations, without AI interference.
