Apple Suspends AI News Alerts After False BBC Story Claimed Luigi Mangione ‘Shot Himself’

(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Apple pulled the plug on its AI-powered news summary feature following a complaint from the BBC over inaccuracies in its alert after the service issued fake notifications branded with the broadcaster’s logo to iPhone users.

One false alert claimed Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Another prematurely declared Luke Littler the winner of the PDC World Darts final before he even played. A separate notification falsely announced tennis star Rafael Nadal had “come out” as gay.

“Notification summaries for the news and entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” Apple said in a statement. “We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update.”

The now-suspended feature grouped users’ news notifications into single alerts, leveraging AI under Apple’s Apple Intelligence initiative. While available in regions including the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, the service was not available in the EU and China due to regulatory barriers.

The controversy has reignited concerns about the reliability of AI in news dissemination. The UK’s National Union of Journalists had previously demanded Apple remove the feature, warning it risked amplifying misinformation and undermining trust in journalism.

The BBC welcomed Apple’s decision in a statement:

We’re pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and is pausing the summarisation feature for news. We look forward to working with them constructively on next steps. Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to audiences, which is essential to building and maintaining trust.

Apple has committed to updating the feature with added safeguards, including error warnings and italicized text, in a bid to restore credibility.