When Apple finally stepped into AI this year, it proudly called it ‘Apple Intelligence’, ditching the ‘artificial’ prefix altogether. That move has aged like milk – at least in the short term. Apple Intelligence’s latest outputs are nothing but artificial and, in one case, have proven to be disastrous.
A few days ago, the company sent out a bizarre notification on the iPhone regarding a BBC news report about the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the lead suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. “Luigi Mangione shoots himself…” read a part of the notification.
The original post from BBC read: “People who knew him told US media he suffered from a painful back injury and that he had become socially withdrawn in recent months.”
This was followed by: “Mr Thompson, 50, was fatally shot in the back last Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan where UnitedHealthcare, the medical insurance giant he led, was holding an investors’ meeting.”
In the first paragraph, the BBC refers to Mangione, while in the second, the victim is Thompson. Apple Intelligence most likely misinterpreted the context of the news article. Following the fiasco, the BBC complained to Apple about the same.
AIM reached out to Apple but did not elicit a response.
Apple Shouldn’t Add Fuel to The Fire
Errors like these could have terrible consequences in a country like India, where the problem of fake news is already a huge one. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report, India ranked the highest for the risk of misinformation and disinformation.
According to the report, which surveyed 1490 experts from academia, business, government, and civil society, ‘AI-generated misinformation and disinformation’ ranked second only to ‘extreme weather conditions’ in the global risk landscape.
“Synthetic content will manipulate individuals, damage economies and fracture societies in numerous ways over the next two years,” the report warned.
The emergence of another way to amplify the spread of fake news is the last thing India needs. Misleading headlines and inaccurate summaries of news on sensitive topics could cause unrest in a country like India.
For example, in 2020, two individuals fell victim to violent lynching fueled by WhatsApp rumours about local thieves. Mistaken identity led to the brutal attack, leaving them injured.
Moreover, iPhone 16, Apple’s latest offering that supports Apple Intelligence, hit record sales on the opening day in India. The numbers recorded an increase of 15-20% compared to last year. Research from Counterpoint for Q3 24’ showed that Apple occupied a 21.6% market value share, only below Samsung.
“As consumers increasingly invest in premium smartphones, Apple has cemented its status as the top choice for premium buyers in India, supported by its aspirational image and expanding footprint,” read the report.
“Experiencing a high-growth phase in India, Apple recorded 34% YoY growth. Q3 2023 also marked the best quarter for Apple’s shipments in the country, which crossed 2.5 million units,” read another report.
Coming back to Apple Intelligence, the BBC mishap should not come as a surprise. Misinterpreted, misleading, and bizarre notification summaries in Apple Intelligence have become the internet’s latest meme sensation.
Notifications Gone Rogue
Apple’s intent with summaries is to scan important details, especially in group chats, to help the user get key information quickly. In a user guide, Apple said, “With its deep understanding of language, Apple Intelligence can help condense the information most important to you.”
But does it?
For context, there is an entire subreddit called r/AppleIntelligenceFail, where users share some of the most confusing and out-of-context results derived from Apple Intelligence.
apple intelligence notification summaries need to chill.
my ring doorbell detected 5-10 people at the door over the course of the day and the apple summary got me thinking there was an angry mob outside my house pic.twitter.com/OJkY7URWlH— Nick “Lindy”quist (@nick_lindquist) December 10, 2024
In one post, a user on Reddit showcased an error where Apple Intelligence mixed up the context between two notifications.
The first notification showed Alex Greenwood being injured in a football game she was playing and Dejan Kulusevski scoring a goal in the game he was playing.
But Apple Intelligence mixed them up and said, “Kulusevski and Greenwood were injured in their respective matches.”
Summaries need some work
byu/googang619 inAppleIntelligenceFail
If there’s one clear thing, it’s that AI models, especially the ones inside iPhones with Apple Intelligence, struggle to understand context, slang, and nuances in conversations.
This was also a concern when Reddit released the AI Answers feature, which summarises threads based on user input.
The content on Reddit is mostly riddled with sarcasm, insider jokes, and references that the community enjoys reading. Is it fair then that AI is allowed to meddle with it?
Moreover, sticking to its privacy promise, Apple has been hell-bent on keeping the AI models local and on devices. And if the AI models need to route their inputs to the cloud, they will do so using their Privacy Cloud Compute (PCC).
However, Apple says the ‘cornerstone of Apple Intelligence is on-device processing’. But how capable can an on-device model be? Apple hasn’t revealed any details about the parameter size. Still, if what we’ve seen is anything to go by, it is far from capable of understanding the nuances of human conversations.
Not Many are Interested in Apple Intelligence
A recent survey adds insult to Apple’s injury by suggesting that a majority of iPhone users do not find Apple Intelligence to add any value. The survey, conducted by Sellcell, included 1,000 users who owned iPhones with Apple Intelligence.
About 73% of the respondents said that they were not satisfied with the AI features and failed to find enough value. However, 47% of iPhone users said that its AI features were ‘somewhat an important deciding factor’ while buying one.
This is, of course, not what Apple expected, given the standards they have set. Quinn Nelson, a popular YouTuber, reacted to the survey results and said, “Perhaps that’s because Apple Intelligence does very little to nothing in value so far.”
“Had to turn Apple Intelligence off. Just not ready for prime time. Notification summaries were wrong and incoherent. Auto-replies in iMessage were comically mundane,” said Morgan Brown, VP of product & growth at Dropbox, in a post on X.
Clearly, there’s a lot of work to do be done for Apple. It wouldn’t want another smartphone maker to take another bite of that fruit.
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