Apple's AI Feature Criticized for Misleading Headlines

December 22, 2024 | 01:00 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders is urging Apple to remove a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that summarizes news stories after it generated false BBC headlines.

The backlash comes after push notifications generated by Apple Intelligence and sent to users last week incorrectly summarized a BBC report that Luigi Mangione, the suspect behind the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, had shot himself.

The BBC said it had contacted Apple about the feature to raise concerns and ask Apple to fix the issue, but could not confirm whether Apple had responded to its complaint.

Reporters Without Borders’ head of technology and journalism, Vincent Berthier, called on Apple to “act responsibly by removing this feature.”

“AI is a probability machine, and facts cannot be decided by throwing dice,” Berthier said in a statement Wednesday, as reported by CNN.

“The automated production of false information attributed to media outlets is a blow to their credibility and compromises the public’s right to reliable information about current events,” he said.

More broadly, Reporters Without Borders said it was deeply concerned about the risks that new AI tools pose to the media. It noted that the incident highlighted how AI is still “too immature to produce reliable information for the public, and should not be allowed on the market for such uses.”

“The probabilistic way in which AI systems operate automatically disqualifies them as a reliable technology for news media that can be used in solutions aimed at the general public,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple introduced its generative AI tool in the US in June, touting the feature’s ability to summarize specific content into easily digestible paragraphs, bullet points, tables, or lists. To streamline the news media’s feed, Apple allows users across iPhones, iPads, and Macs to group notifications, generating a list of news items in a single push alert.

Since the AI feature was launched publicly in late October, users have reported that it also incorrectly summarized a New York Times story claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. In fact, the International Criminal Court has just issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

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