BBC Files Complaint with Apple Regarding Misleading AI-Generated News Summary

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has lodged a complaint with Apple following an incident where the technology company’s new iPhone functionality produced an inaccurate headline concerning a prominent murder case in the United States. Apple Intelligence, which became available in the United Kingdom earlier this week, employs artificial intelligence (AI) to consolidate and categorize notifications. During the current week, the AI-generated summary erroneously suggested that BBC News had released a report stating that Luigi Mangione, who was apprehended in connection with the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had committed suicide by shooting himself. This claim is untrue. A spokesperson for the BBC stated that the organization had reached out to Apple “to raise this concern and fix the problem.” Apple chose not to provide a comment. The BBC spokesperson further remarked, “BBC News is the most trusted news media in the world.” They emphasized, “It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications.” While the notification contained an incorrect assertion regarding Mangione, its summaries concerning the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria and an update on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol were otherwise precise. However, the BBC does not seem to be the sole news publisher whose headlines have been inaccurately represented by Apple’s new AI technology. On November 21, three distinct articles from The New York Times were combined into a single notification, one segment of which stated “Netanyahu arrested,” in reference to the Israeli prime minister. This summary incorrectly condensed a newspaper report detailing the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, as opposed to any actual reporting of his arrest. A journalist from the U.S. investigative journalism website ProPublica brought attention to this error on Bluesky. The BBC has been unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the screenshot, and The New York Times refused to comment when approached by BBC News. Apple states that a potential benefit of its AI-driven notification summaries is to mitigate disruptions from continuous alerts and enable users to prioritize more critical messages. The feature is exclusively accessible on specific iPhone models, specifically those running iOS 18.1 or newer on recent devices (including all iPhone 16 phones, the 15 Pro, and the 15 Pro Max). It is also compatible with certain iPads and Macs. Professor Petros Iosifidis, a media policy professor at City University in London, informed BBC News that Apple’s error “looks embarrassing.” He remarked, “I can see the pressure getting to the market first, but I am surprised that Apple put their name on such demonstrably half-baked product.” He further added, “Yes, potential advantages are there – but the technology is not there yet and there is a real danger of spreading disinformation.” These consolidated notifications are identified by a distinct icon, and users have the option to report any issues they encounter with a notification summary on their devices. Apple has not disclosed the number of reports it has received. Apple Intelligence’s functionality extends beyond merely summarizing publisher articles; reports indicate that its summaries of emails and text messages have, at times, been inaccurate. This incident is not an isolated occurrence where a major technology company has found that AI-generated summaries are not consistently reliable. In May, Google’s AI Overviews tool for internet searches, in what the company characterized as “isolated examples,” advised some users seeking methods for making cheese adhere to pizza to contemplate using “non-toxic glue.” Furthermore, the search engine’s AI-generated responses also suggested that geologists advise humans to consume one rock daily. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding our policy on external linking is available.