In a significant setback to Apple’s artificial intelligence ambitions, the tech giant has temporarily suspended its AI-powered news notification feature after it repeatedly generated false headlines, including fabricated claims about prominent political figures and criminal cases.
Apple announced on Thursday that it would disable the Apple Intelligence feature for news and entertainment notifications across its platforms while working on improvements. This rare reversal comes after mounting pressure from major news organizations and press freedom advocates.
The controversy began shortly after the feature’s launch as part of Apple’s broader AI integration strategy. The BBC formally complained to Apple in December 2024 when the AI erroneously reported that Luigi Mangione, a murder suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO case, had taken his own life. In another striking example, the system falsely claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested, conflating multiple New York Times articles into a single misleading notification.
“These AI summarizations by Apple do not reflect—and in some cases completely contradict—the original BBC content,” a BBC spokesperson told CNN. The situation deteriorated further when the system generated entirely fictional headlines about political figures Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, and Marco Rubio.
Jonathan Bright from the Alan Institute emphasized the persistent challenge of AI “hallucinations”—instances where systems generate false information despite appearing confident in their output. “Currently, there’s no systematic way to prevent such inaccuracies without human intervention,” he noted.
The National Union of Journalists has taken a firm stance, stating that “the public must not be placed in a position of second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive.”
Looking ahead, Apple plans to implement several improvements before reactivating the feature. These include clearer disclaimers about AI-generated content, italicized text to distinguish AI summaries, and enhanced user controls for managing notifications. However, no specific timeline has been provided for the feature’s return.
This incident highlights the broader challenges facing AI integration in news delivery, particularly as tech companies race to incorporate generative AI capabilities into their products. A recent study from Cornell, the University of Washington, and the University of Waterloo found that even top AI models remain unreliable due to their tendency to invent information.
The suspension of Apple’s AI news feature serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of deploying AI systems in sensitive areas like news distribution without adequate safeguards and human oversight.
