(Credit: Emily Forlini/PCMag)
Apple is making several changes to its Apple Intelligence-powered notification summaries after the feature was caught delivering inaccurate alerts.
Earlier this month, it was unclear whether Apple would stop its AI from summarizing news because it initially said it would just warn users that its tool can be wrong. Now, Apple has temporarily disabled AI-generated notification summaries for news and entertainment apps in the latest developer beta for iOS 18.3. After Apple fixes underlying issues, the feature is expected to be re-enabled for these app categories in a future software update.
While the feature is still available for other apps, Apple now displays an alert below the "Summarize Notifications" toggle in the Settings app that warns users about Apple Intelligence's accuracy. "Summaries may contain errors," the warning states. Apple is also going to italicize AI-generated text to make it more obvious when text is coming from an AI tool as opposed to a news outlet or an app's developer.
Apple is also adding an option to help manage notification summaries from the lock screen. Users can swipe left on a notification summary to access the menu, where they can enable or disable the AI feature for individual apps.
Last month, the BBC flagged glaring errors made by the AI summaries, which included an incorrect alert about the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter taking his own life when, in fact, Luigi Mangione is still alive.
An Apple spokesperson previously said the company is "making improvements with the help of user feedback" and clarifying "when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence."