Apple is suspending an artificial intelligence feature that inaccurately summarized news headlines.
The tech company received a complaint from the BBC after the artificial intelligence-generated service published a news alert bearing the company's logo, falsely telling some iPhone users that the person accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Brian Thompson's Luigi Mangione shot himself.
Other fake notices bearing the BBC logo include one claiming Luke Littler won the PDC World Darts final before competing in it, and another claiming tennis player Rafael Nadal " came out as gay.
Apple said in a statement that the feature will be suspended in the next upcoming software update. Other news organizations were also affected by the errors, with a New York Times alert summary falsely claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested.
"Notification summaries for the News and Entertainment categories will be temporarily unavailable," Apple said. "We're working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update."
The news summaries are part of Apple's effort to incorporate more artificial intelligence capabilities into its products, under the label "Apple Intelligence," which is available in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada but not in the EU and China.
Apple has previously said it would update rather than suspend the feature. In the UK, the National Union of Journalists called for the service to be removed to "ensure it does not contribute to already widespread misinformation and cause damage to online journalism".
The feature aggregates a user's news notifications and groups them into a single alert on the lock screen. Apple is working on a version that will warn iPhone users of potential errors and will use italicized text.
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A BBC spokesman said: "We are pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and has suspended the news summary feature. "We look forward to working constructively with them on the next steps. Our priority is delivering news to our audiences. Accuracy is critical to building and maintaining trust.”