"Threat to journalism": Calls for Apple's AI notifications to be shut down
AI is not able to reliably summarize news, according to a media organization. It is calling on Apple to remove the new iPhone function.
Apple Intelligence summaries are marked with a small icon.
(Image: Mac & i)
A core function of Apple Intelligence is coming under increasing criticism: following the false summary of a news headline, the media organization Reporters sans frontières (RSF) is now calling on the iPhone company to "act responsibly" and remove the feature from the operating system. AI tools are too "immature" to generate reliable and high-quality information for the public, the journalists explain. The automated creation of false information using language models undermines trust in the media and threatens journalism. AIs are "probability machines", writes RSF, but facts should not be created by rolling the dice.
Call for EU rules on AI news summaries
The organization is not only appealing to Apple's sense of responsibility, but has also indirectly called on the EU Commission to take action: The use of AI in the context of news information should not be allowed at all, according to the RSF. The European AI regulation (EU AI Act) had failed to include such AI-generated news summaries among the high-risk systems, thus creating a "legal vacuum". This must now be eliminated.
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RSF's call follows a complaint from the BBC: the British broadcaster contacted Apple earlier this week after the AI function on at least one iPhone misleadingly summarized a headline. The suspect in the high-profile murder of a US insurance executive had shot himself, according to the factually incorrect abbreviation generated by Apple's language model. It remains unclear what the original headline received by the BBC app as a push message was. Apple has not yet responded publicly to the matter.
Apple Intelligence is currently only available in English
Since iOS 18.1, Apple Intelligence summarizes incoming messages on request. The function currently only works in English and is only available on Macs in the EU, but not officially on iPhones and iPads. Such errors are difficult to reproduce because language models provide different outputs and the AI summary varies depending on the other preceding messages. Since the launch of the function, there have been reports of bizarre, funny and even disturbing summaries by Apple Intelligence.
(lbe)
