Apple says one of the reasons people might like its AI-powered notification summaries is to help reduce the interruptions caused by ongoing notifications, and to allow the user to prioritise more important notices.
It is only available on certain iPhones – those using the iOS 18.1 system version or later on recent devices (all iPhone 16 phones, the 15 Pro, and the 15 Pro Max). It is also available on some iPads and Macs.
Prof Petros Iosifidis, a professor in media policy at City University in London, told News the mistake by Apple “looks embarrassing”.
“I can see the pressure getting to the market first, but I am surprised that Apple put their name on such demonstrably half-baked product,” he said.
“Yes, potential advantages are there – but the technology is not there yet and there is a real danger of spreading disinformation.”
The grouped notifications are marked with a specific icon, and users can report any concerns they have on a notification summary on their devices. Apple has not outlined how many reports it has received.
Apple Intelligence does not just summarise the articles of publishers, and it has been reported the summaries of emails and text messages have occasionally not quite hit the mark, external.
And this is not the first time a big tech company has discovered AI summaries do not always work.
In May, in what Google described as “isolated examples”, its AI Overviews tool for internet searches told some users looking for how to make cheese stick to pizza should consider using “non-toxic glue”.
The search engine’s AI-generated responses also said geologists recommend humans eat one rock per day.
