The National Union of Journalists has backed the BBC’s complaints over inaccuracies in Apple Intelligence’s news summaries, calling for the tech giant to remove the feature from its devices following several falsehoods relayed to readers using the generative AI tool.
The BBC complained last month after an AI-generated summary of its headline falsely told some readers that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself.
Since then, last Friday Apple’s AI inaccurately summarised BBC app notifications to claim that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship hours before it began, and that the Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. Although Littler would go on to win the title a few hours later, Apple’s AI headline appears to have been based on his semi-final victory, while the Nadal story related to an entirely different tennis player’s thoughts on his sexuality.
In its first acknowledgement of the concerns, Apple yesterday said it was working on a software change to “further clarify” when the notifications are summaries that have been generated by the Apple Intelligence system.
The BBC said in a statement yesterday: “These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect – and in some cases completely contradict – the original BBC content. It is critical that Apple urgently addresses these issues as the accuracy of our news is essential in maintaining trust.”
The NUJ has now joined the debated, saying significant concerns remain over the erosion of public confidence in journalism if the feature is not removed. The journalist’s union has repeatedly raised its concerns over the use of generative AI within journalism.
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said: “Apple must act swiftly, removing Apple Intelligence to ensure it plays no role in contributing to the misinformation already prevalent and causing harm to journalism online. At a time where access to accurate reporting has never been more important, the public must not be placed in a position of second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive.
“Editorial integrity is crucial to our public service broadcaster and AI generated summaries falsely attributing information, risk harm to the reputation of journalists reporting ethically. We will continue to engage with the BBC supporting their concerns about Apple’s feature, whilst making clear our calls to Apple for action that goes beyond an update to Apple Intelligence.”
In its statement yesterday, Apple promised that an update would make it clearer when AI had been used to create the summaries, and noted that the technology was in beta mode and is expected to improve moving forwards: “We are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback,” the company said, adding that receiving the summaries is optional. “A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary.”
The feature was rolled out in the UK in December. It is currently only available on its iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max handsets running iOS 18.1 and above, as well as on some iPads and Macs.
