Image by AP, from FMT

Apple Urged to Remove AI Feature After False Headline Controversy

• Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
• Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

A major journalism watchdog has urged Apple to withdraw its generative AI feature after the tool falsely attributed a headline about a high-profile murder case to BBC News.

In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!

• Apple’s AI tool falsely attributed a headline about Luigi Mangione to BBC News.
• Reporters Without Borders calls for Apple to remove the AI feature.
• The BBC filed a complaint after the false headline emerged.

The BBC reported on Thursday that controversy arose after Apple’s new feature , Apple Intelligence, inaccurately generated a headline. It suggested that Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. The BBC had not published such an article.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international organization advocating for press freedom, criticized Apple, stating the incident underscores the risks posed by immature AI tools to media credibility and public trust.

Vincent Berthier, head of RSF’s technology and journalism desk, condemned the misstep, calling it a “blow to the outlet’s credibility” and a threat to public access to reliable information. RSF demanded Apple remove the feature immediately.

“The European AI Act — despite being the most advanced legislation in the world in this area — did not classified information-generating AIs as high-risk systems, leaving a critical legal vacuum. This gap must be filled immediately,” said Berthier.

The BBC confirmed it had lodged a formal complaint with the tech giant and requested a resolution, but it remains unclear whether Apple has responded.

The flawed AI summary was not limited to BBC News. On November 21, the feature inaccurately summarized a New York Times article, falsely suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested, as reported by the BBC article.

This notification, later highlighted by journalist Ken Schwencke, actually referred to an International Criminal Court warrant against Netanyahu.

Apple AI notification summaries continue to be so so so bad [image or embed] — Ken Schwencke ( @schwanksta.com ) 21 November 2024 at 16:22

Apple Intelligence , aims to reduce notification interruptions by summarizing and grouping them. Available on iPhones running iOS 18.1 and newer models, as well as select iPads and Macs, the tool has faced backlash for misrepresenting information from reputable news outlets.

The BBC spokesperson emphasized that while some grouped notifications accurately summarized stories about global events, the misinformation involving Mangione demonstrated the technology’s potential to harm both media outlets and public understanding.

RSF warned that “This accident illustrates that generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public, and should not be allowed on the market for such uses.”

Ars Technica reviewed Apple’s notification summaries, noting several issues that arise frequently. First, while some summaries are factually correct, they sound robotic and awkward, particularly in sensitive subjects like relationships or mental health. Others misunderstand sarcasm, slang, or idiomatic expressions, often interpreting them too literally.

Loss of context is another major problem, particularly when summaries miss earlier messages in a thread or fail to consider multimedia content. In group chats with multiple topics, summaries can become overloaded, mixing subjects and leading to inaccuracies.

Finally, some summaries are just plain wrong, often due to an attempt to condense too much information into too few words, which results in distorted accounts. Overall, these problems, which affect the usefulness and accuracy of the feature, are frequent in everyday use.

Mangione, now charged with first-degree murder, has become a focal point in the debate over the risks associated with AI in journalism . The public’s reliance on credible news remains at stake as Apple faces mounting pressure to address the issue.

Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash

Neo-Bank TBC Uzbekistan Raises $37 Million To Expand And Develop AI Products

• Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
• Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

TBC Bank Uzbekistan raised $37 million in a recent funding round led by the bank’s London-based parent TBC Group to expand its services and develop AI products and services.

In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!

• TBC Uzbekistan raised $37 million in a recent round led by its parent company TBC Group
• The neo-bank expects to provide more AI solutions and expand services like including its own insurance
• TBC Uzbekistan is the country’s largest fully digital bank but is getting ready for increasing competition

According to TechCrunch , the mobile-exclusive bank was founded in 2020 and has been offering customers the possibility to open bank accounts and process deposits and cash loans through its mobile app. For the past few months, TBC Uzbekistan has been developing its own AI solutions like AI agents to remind users of upcoming payments—the startup expects to expand to voice interactions in the near future.

“We’re going deeper into the financial life of retail customers across Uzbekistan. So we’re building out vertical by vertical into different products,” said Oliver Hughes, head of international business at TBC Group, to TechCrunch.

The new capital will boost the company’s AI efforts—even though the amount for this purpose has not been disclosed—and add to the $38.5 million the neo-bank raised in July.

TBC Uzbekistan expects to scale up by including new insurance services—the company currently relies on third-party services—expanding its purposes and areas of expertise.

The mobile bank reported 15.7 registered unique users in a report shared in June and proved increasing growth and revenues and its dominance in the market as the country’s largest digital bank with low competition.

“It’s not super competitive today, but it will certainly become more and more competitive as we could go along over the next few years,” said Hughes.

This year, other startups have been developing digital banking solutions for their markets and aim to expand to more regions. The Mexican fintech Stori raised $212 million in August to expand its services, and the African fintech Juicyway recently processed more than $1 billion in transactions powered by stablecoin technology.