Apple Intelligence falsely attributed fake news to BBC, broadcaster alleges in complaint

In this case, the BBC said that the AI-generated summary incorrectly claimed that Luigi Mangione had died by suicide  and further indicated that the BBC’s news website had published the fake article. However, Mangione – who was charged last week with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson – is currently in the custody of US authorities.

“BBC News is the most trusted news media in the world. It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement, adding that it has contacted Apple to raise this concern and fix the problem.

Additionally, the BBC reported that Apple Intelligence’s summarisation feature had misrepresented content from news articles published by The New York Times. The AI-generated summary of three articles by the US-based daily had one part that read, “Netanyahu arrested.” It is important to note that the Israeli prime minister has not been arrested. However, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him and two others on November 21, 2024.

Furthermore, a recent study by Columbia Journalism School found “numerous” instances of publishers’ content being inaccurately cited and decontextualised after asking ChatGPT to identify the source of block quotes pulled from 200 news articles posted by various publishers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Financial Times.