Apple's AI-driven Notification Summaries feature, which started so promisingly as a way to deal with notifications, had some pretty serious setbacks.
The feature was problematic, especially in summarizing news, causing inaccuracies that caused a media storm. The iPhone maker has acted now in the latest iOS 18.3 beta update, specifically concerning news and entertainment notifications.
Apple's Notification Summaries Exposed in Latest Downfall
Notification Summaries, powered by Apple Intelligence, is designed to offer concise versions of notifications so users can stay informed without being overwhelmed by alerts. But it didn't take long for the AI to make notable mistakes. According to BBC, a high-profile error occurred when the feature incorrectly summarized a BBC article about the alleged murderer of United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione.
The AI made an error in its judgment, and misattribution of details, and so the BBC, among other news organizations, forced Apple to rectify the feature to avoid confusion.
As with AI, these LLMs sometimes "hallucinate" or give out inaccurate outputs, but the error here was glaringly obvious. It prompted Apple to respond, where it clarified that the feature was still in beta.
The company assured users that they would be rolling out software updates to correct errors and increase transparency on when content is AI-generated versus human-created.
Read More: Apple Intelligence: Need a Ghostwriter For Essays, Emails? iOS 18.2 Expands Writing Tools For You
Major Updates of the Newest iOS 18.3 Beta
In the latest iOS 18.3 beta, Apple has updated the Notification Summaries feature and specifically targeted the news and entertainment apps. TechRadar reports that it now allows users to turn the feature off app by app. This means a user can easily disable summarizations of all news apps if they prefer to do so.
This is an enhancement long overdue, considering users were already annoyed by AI inaccuracies when reporting news.
Apple now also includes a notice under Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications that reads, "Summaries may contain errors." This allows users to know that AI is still evolving and can potentially be wrong at times, especially when dealing with sensitive information, such as news summaries.
Temporary Unavailability Feature for News and Entertainment Apps
For now, the news and entertainment apps will be listed as "Temporarily Unavailable" in the settings menu for Notification Summaries. This will indicate that Apple is actively working on improving the feature and that this feature is going to return in future updates.
In this way, the Cupertino giant addresses concerns and lets users know that these problems will be quickly fixed.
One of the other significant improvements in the iOS 18.3 beta is the introduction of italicized text for summaries displayed on the lock screen. This helps to differentiate between regular notifications and those summarized by Apple Intelligence. If a summarized notification catches a user's eye, they can tap on it to expand and view the full, original content.
Apple has always responded rapidly to user feedback to better the experience of its users and improve AI performance.
Even with Notification Summaries, it has room for improvement, but in iOS 18.3 beta, the system offers more control and better clarity over when and how AI-generated content is displayed.
Therefore, after such fixes, the technology is most likely to continue being improved in subsequent updates, thereby restoring users' trust with correct information.
