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Apple Under Fire for Flawed AI-Powered News Summaries
Apple has come under intense scrutiny for its AI-powered feature that summarizes breaking news, which has been criticized for consistently generating false information and pushing it to millions of users.
Despite alleging a barrage of fabrications for weeks, Apple has yet to address the problem. “This is my periodic rant that Apple Intelligence is so bad that today it got every fact wrong in its AI summary of Washington Post news alerts,” wrote the newspaper’s tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler.
The feature has been shown to be wildly irresponsible, spreading lies and sowing distrust and confusion among iPhone users. Apple’s AI summaries have been accused of “hallucinated” lies, with experts believing that this may be an intrinsic problem of the technology.
The stakes are high, given the context. Apple’s notifications are intended to alert iPhone users to breaking news, not spread misinformation. The story also highlights a stark power imbalance, with news organizations powerless to determine how Apple represents their work to its vast number of users.
Despite numerous complaints from news organizations, Apple has yet to make meaningful changes. The company has only promised to add a clarifying disclaimer to its summaries, stating that the information is AI-generated and may be incorrect. This has been met with criticism, with journalists warning that this could lead to users being expected to fact-check each summary, further eroding trust in the news industry.
Journalists are particularly concerned about the impact on public perception and access to accurate reporting, with the National Union of Journalists general secretary Laura Davison stating, “At a time where access to accurate reporting has never been more important, the public must not be placed in a position of second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive.”