Apple is facing intense criticism over its AI-generated news summaries, which have produced inaccurate and misleading alerts on its latest devices.
Media organisations, including the BBC, have raised concerns that the feature, designed to summarise breaking news notifications, has fabricated details that contradict original reports.
The National Union of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have called for the product’s removal, warning it risks spreading misinformation at a time when trust in news is already fragile.
High-profile errors have fuelled demands for urgent action. In December, an Apple AI summary falsely claimed that a murder suspect had taken his own life, while another inaccurately announced Luke Littler as the winner of the PDC World Darts Championship before the event had even begun.
Apple has pledged to update the feature to make it clearer that summaries are AI-generated, but critics argue this does not address the root problem.
Journalism watchdogs and industry experts have warned that AI-driven news aggregation remains unreliable.
Similar concerns have been raised over generative AI tools from other tech firms, with Google’s AI-powered search summaries also facing scrutiny for producing incorrect responses.
Apple insists the feature remains optional and is still in beta testing, with further improvements expected in an upcoming software update.
“Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
“A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary.”
