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Apple Faces Criticism Over AI-Generated News Headline Summaries

Mistakes are part of the game with these models. One needs to verify anything of importance that comes out of these models, this headline included.

I personally would take this trade off. It will get better with time. I’d be upset if they removed the feature. Maybe the answer will be turning it off by default.
 
Silverado said:
Mistakes are part of the game with these models. One needs to verify anything of importance that comes out of these models, this headline included.

I personally would take this trade off. It will get better with time. I’d be upset if they removed the feature. Maybe the answer will be turning it off by default.
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It's already off by default, as is all of Apple AI.
 
Why even bother with very short AI news summaries when we have headlines?

And I was taught that the 5 W's and H should be in the 1st paragraph.
 
You should see the email summaries of emails that kids (sometimes via parents) email to Santa Claus. I had to turn them off after the 2nd beta because they were so bad. Not to mention the summaries of the voicemails that kids and parents leave for Santa when there are two layers - the voice transcription and then the attempted summary of it.
 
WarmWinterHat said:
It's already off by default, as is all of Apple AI.
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The problem is that Apple is heavily promoting it. It's a beta version, good as an experimental feature, but they shouldn't be promoting it to the general public.

Some people (myself included) argue against those in favor of things like sideloading who say "it's optional, you have to turn on a toggle"... this is the same case, hiding it behind a toggle doesn't remove the danger.
 
centauratlas said:
You should see the email summaries of emails that kids (sometimes via parents) email to Santa Claus. I had to turn them off after the 2nd beta because they were so bad. Not to mention the summaries of the voicemails that kids and parents leave for Santa when there are two layers - the voice transcription and then the attempted summary of it.
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I had not seen any of theses :) That must be funny.

Yet I think it can safely be said that a) this is not an intended use case and b) why would you ever want to read a summary of a letter to/from Santa and not the whole thing?! :)
 
AlexESP said:
I'm disappointed to see that Apple gave up to pressure and implemented generative AI against their core beliefs. Gen AI is an impressive and interesting technology, but using it in a customer-facing product goes against Apple's standards. For years, I've supported Apple when it comes to avoiding doing some things - like improving Siri with LLMs, since enhancing it is not worth it when there is the slightest possibility of telling a user that eating pizza with glue or eating rocks is recommended. I still had some hopes, but I'm sad to see they crossed the line on this one.
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Wall Street demanded it. What’s so eye rolling though is Wall Street doesn’t actually care if it works or not; they just care that Apple said they’re doing it.
 
That's gold. I will use these hilarious examples to demonstrate to my students that AI is (often) still a bunchload of crap. Living in the EU, I must say that I do not miss these "features" at all. Siri is generally far worse in any other language than English.
 
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Abazigal said:
Headlines really do have a way of making it seem like Apple is facing massive backlash over this when in reality, it’s just a small number of users and organisations.
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It sure seems like most of Apple Intelligence exists to please Wall Street. The freak out wasn’t as bad as pre-iPhone 6 (I don’t think anyone was calling for the board to replace Tim Cook) but it was bad enough that Apple execs felt the had to announce something.
 
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I'm starting to feel everything produced by AI should come with a warning:

"100% pure unverified, recycled content. Consumption may impair your ability to function. May contain lies and traces of truth. Produced in a facility that doesn't care about quality"
 
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amaze1499 said:
Turn it off and use your own brain instead.
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Generally my thoughts on all of these AI features right now. I can read a headline, or text, or email, I don't need something to dumb it down for me. I can also write my own correspondences with the proper tone, I don't need something to make my email "professional" or "humorous" or whatever. I don't want to sound like an old man, but am I the only one who feels like this sort of "convenience" is just going to make everyone stupider and far less literate?
 
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MacRumors said:


Apple is facing calls to remove its AI-powered notification summaries feature after it generated false headlines about a high-profile murder case, drawing criticism from a major journalism organization.

bbc-news-headlines-notification-summary.jpg

Updated to iOS 18.2? Then you may have received this notification (image credit: BBC News)​


Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged Apple to disable the Apple Intelligence notification feature, which rolled out globally last week as part of its iOS 18.2 software update. The request comes after the feature created a misleading headline suggesting that murder suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself, incorrectly attributing the false information to BBC News.

Mangione in fact remains under maximum security at Huntingdon State Correctional Institution in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, after having been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York.

The BBC has confirmed that it filed a complaint with Apple regarding the headline incident. The RSF has since argued that summaries of the type prove that "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public."

Vincent Berthier, head of RSF's technology and journalism desk, said that "AIs are probability machines, and facts can't be decided by a roll of the dice." He called the automated production of false information "a danger to the public's right to reliable information."

This isn't an isolated incident, either. The New York Times reportedly experienced a similar issue when Apple Intelligence incorrectly summarized an article about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, creating a notification claiming he had been arrested when the original article discussed an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Apple's AI feature aims to reduce notification overload by condensing alerts into brief summaries, and is currently available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 models, and select iPads and Macs running the latest operating system versions. The summarization feature is enabled by default, but users can manually disable it through their device settings.
Apple has not yet commented on the controversy or indicated whether it plans to modify or remove the feature.

(Via BBC News.)

Article Link: Apple Faces Criticism Over AI-Generated News Headline
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I turned the AI generated headlines off.
 
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