The BBC has expressed dissatisfaction with the notification summary feature from Apple Intelligence. The organization claims that this feature created an erroneous headline concerning Luigi Mangione, who was apprehended this week as the alleged murderer of the CEO of United HealthGroup.
The specific notification summary implied that Mangione had attempted suicide: “Luigi Mangione shoots himself; Syrian mother hopes Assad pays the price; South Korea police raid Yoon Suk Yeol’s office.”
This summarization feature is part of Apple Intelligence, which was launched with iOS 18.1. Notification summaries appear at the top of grouped notifications from the same application. Users can select the summary to view the complete list of notifications and their original texts.
The precise content of the original notification that resulted in the misleading summary about Mangione is not clear. It appears that Apple Intelligence condensed three headlines from the BBC News app, each separated by a semi-colon.
Importantly, the Apple Intelligence summary accurately reflected the other two headlines (one regarding Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and another concerning South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol).
“BBC News is recognized as the most trustworthy news source in the world,” a spokesperson for the BBC stated. “It is crucial for us that our audience can rely on all information or journalism disseminated under our name, including notifications.”
The BBC has reached out to Apple to address this issue and seek a resolution. Apple has yet to respond.
Furthermore, the BBC highlighted a post on Bluesky showcasing another instance where Apple Intelligence misrepresented a New York Times headline about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Such issues are not unique to Apple Intelligence and may affect any system reliant on large language models. Users can manage their notification summaries on their iPhone by navigating to the Settings app, selecting “Notifications,” and then tapping “Summarize Notifications.”
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