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Apple has suspended a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that drew criticism and complaints for repeatedly making mistakes in its news headline summaries.
The tech giant faced mounting pressure to scrap a service that sent notifications that appeared to come from news organizations’ programs.
“We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update,” said an Apple representative.
The BBC was among the groups that complained after an alert created by Apple’s artificial intelligence falsely told some readers that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, shot himself.
The feature also inaccurately aggregated headlines from the New York Times and Washington Post, according to reports from reporters and others on social media.
There were mass media and press groups prompted the company to retreat, a warning that this feature is not ready and that errors created by artificial intelligence exacerbate the problems of misinformation and the loss of trust in the news.
The BBC complained to Apple in December, but it did not respond until January, when it promised a software update that would clarify the role of artificial intelligence in producing the summaries, which were optional and only available to readers with the latest iPhones.
This prompted a further wave of criticism that the tech giant didn’t go far enough.
Now, Apple has decided to completely disable this feature for news and entertainment programs.
“With the latest beta versions of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” said an Apple representative.
For other apps, AI-generated alert summaries will be italicized, the company said.
“We’re pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and suspended the news feed feature,” a spokesperson told the BBC.
“We look forward to working constructively with them on the next steps. Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to our audience, which is essential to building and maintaining trust.”
Apple said the feature, which launched in the UK in December, should make customers’ lives more efficient.
It combines and overwrites previews of multiple recent app notifications into a single alert on users’ lock screens.
The decision comes as the company faces pressure to show off its AI developments, which investors hoped would fuel a new wave of demand for the iPhone and other technology.
The company’s shares fell more than 4% in after-hours trading on Thursday after reports of tough sales in China.
