Apple Intelligence summary botches a headline, causing jitters in BBC newsroom

Things are not entirely going to plan for Apple's generative AI system, after the recently introduced service attracted the ire of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Apple Intelligence generated a headline of a BBC news story that popped up on iPhones late last week, claiming that Luigi Mangione, a man arrested over the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thomson, had shot himself. This summary was not true and sparked a complaint from the UK's national broadcaster.

AI-generated content is prone to inaccuracies, and providers like Microsoft and OpenAI typically include disclaimers. Introducing a summary into a user's news feed without making it clear there is a chance it could be wrong is bad, but worse is attributing the inaccuracy elsewhere.

A source at the BBC, who spoke to The Register on condition of anonymity, admitted that corporation had made its fair share of errors over the years, but said:

"This one caused some jitters and has fed into a mood that AI-generated products can be a bad fit for news especially. Our Head of News is big on verify and truth, etc so [the] BBC will really want to make a fuss when this happens so everyone knows it's wrong and not our fault."

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The mistake comes as smartphone users show apathy to AI services being hoisted onto their devices. In a recent survey of 2,000 smartphone users (of which more than 1,000 had an iPhone capable of running Apple Intelligence), 73 percent of iPhone users said AI features added little or no value. A little more than one in ten believed AI features were "very valuable."

More than half (54 percent) of iPhone users had used Apple Intelligence to generate notification summaries. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) had used the services' Writing Tools for tasks such as proofreading and summarizing.

For context, it seems some Samsung users are even more blasé about AI. Eighty-seven percent said AI features added little or no value, despite the tech giant pumping them into devices.

Apple Intelligence was launched in the UK in the last week. However, those hoping the megacorp's late entry to AI would be a little more polished may be disappointed by high-profile missteps such as the BBC's complaint. Apple Intelligence appears equally prone to errors as other AI platforms. ®