Apple’s intelligence system mistakenly credited fake news to the BBC, the broadcaster claims in a formal complaint.

The BBC has raised a complaint after Apple Intelligence, a feature that uses AI to summarize notifications, webpages, and messages, mistakenly attributed fake news to the broadcaster. The issue arose when an AI-generated summary falsely claimed that UnitedHealthcare suspect Luigi Mangione had died by suicide, with the fake report wrongly credited to the BBC. The BBC clarified that Mangione, who was recently charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is currently in US custody. The BBC emphasized the importance of maintaining trust in its journalism and has contacted Apple to address the issue and resolve the error.

The BBC also reported that Apple Intelligence’s summarization feature had inaccurately represented content from articles published by The New York Times. The AI-generated summary of three articles included a misleading phrase stating, “Netanyahu arrested.” However, it is important to clarify that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been arrested. Instead, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him and two others on November 21, 2024.

Additionally, a recent study by Columbia Journalism School discovered “numerous” cases where publishers’ content was incorrectly cited and taken out of context. The study involved asking ChatGPT to identify the source of block quotes extracted from 200 news articles published by various outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Financial Times.