Apple Hits Pause on AI News Alerts in Latest iPhone Beta Update

Apple has momentarily suspended Apple Intelligence summaries for news applications for users running its beta software, signaling the difficulties the enterprise encounters with its AI technology. 

The choice to halt AI summaries comes weeks after the BBC pointed out that Apple’s AI system had distorted its news alerts, revealing incorrect information. This interruption solely pertains to individuals using Apple’s beta software, excluding those operating on the primary versions of the company’s operating systems. 

News and entertainment applications, notably The New York Times, began displaying a brief message within the iPhone settings app on Thursday indicating that AI-driven summaries were “temporarily unavailable.”

The cessation of one of Apple Intelligence’s essential features underscores the hurdles Apple faces in the deployment of its artificial intelligence technology, which has drawn criticism from numerous users on social platforms.

“With the recent beta software updates of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily inaccessible,” an Apple spokesperson informed CNBC in a statement. 

The representative mentioned that Apple is in the process of enhancing the software, with updates expected in the next software version. The timeline for releasing the iOS 18.3 to users of the standard version of the iPhone OS is not specified, but it may take weeks, in line with Apple’s past software rollout patterns.

The decision to pause the AI summaries coincided with a day when Apple’s stock experienced a 4% decline, marking its most unfavorable trading day since August 5. One of the factors contributing to the decline was a prominent Apple supply chain analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, stating on Monday that the features of Apple Intelligence do not seem to be driving iPhone sales.

The company introduced Apple Intelligence in October as the flagship element of its latest iPhone lineup and as its response to the AI competition that commenced with OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch in late 2022. 

Apple has positioned the AI features as the pivotal selling aspect in its promotional endeavors for its latest hardware, yet the software has been fraught with complications. 

The enterprise asserts that the complete Apple Intelligence system remains in the beta phase, and the update on Thursday incorporated language stating that the AI software could yield unforeseen outcomes. 

Apple Intelligence encompasses various functionalities, including image creators, but the feature that has drawn the most focus is its capability to condense extensive notifications into succinct sentences — something that, according to Apple’s promotional materials, helps users sort through numerous group chat notifications without having to scroll through the entire conversation.

With the Thursday update, Apple declared it will present any AI-summarized notification in italics to differentiate them from other notifications. 

In trials, Apple Intelligence summaries were not flawless, but the inaccuracies were mostly humorous and apparent. Issues arose when the technology began summarizing news, leading it to present false information.

The most notable and well-documented mistake occurred in December, when 22 distinct BBC news notifications were amalgamated into a three-part headline starting with “Luigi Mangione shoots himself.” The supposed assassin, Brian Thompson, has not committed that act.

The feature also fused headlines from The New York Times into a notification in November that falsely claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been detained, per a ProPublica reporter’s social media post.

Another Apple Intelligence notification on January 3 stated that darts competitor Luke Littler had secured a world championship, which had not yet occurred, according to the BBC. The technology also conflated updates from the BBC’s sports app, inaccurately stating that “Brazilian tennis player, Rafael Nadal, has come out as gay.” Nadal is Spanish and is married to Maria Francisca Perello.

On Thursday, Apple also introduced a new option that allows users to disable AI summaries for any application by swiping left on the notification from the lock screen of the phone. Users were previously limited to turning off AI summaries via the settings application. 

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