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Today β€” 17 January 2025News

Apple pauses AI summaries of news notifications, acknowledging a big flaw that drew backlash from publishers

17 January 2025 at 03:38
Apple WWDC 2024
Apple has paused AI-enabled summaries of news notifications in its latest software release to developers.

Apple

  • Apple has temporarily disabled AI summaries of news notifications in a new software release.
  • The feature has faced criticism from media outlets over concerns that AI generates factual errors.
  • Apple has been betting big on AI to trigger an iPhone upgrade cycle.

Apple is pausing a feature in its artificial intelligence software designed to summarize news notifications following backlash from media companies that said the technology was making major errors.

The technology giant unveiled the change to its Apple Intelligence platform on Thursday following its latest software release to developers. The iOS 18 beta 3 update shows that generative AI-enabled notification summaries are "temporarily unavailable" for news apps.

In a statement, Apple confirmed to Business Insider that notification summaries for news and entertainment will be temporarily unavailable with its latest beta software releases across iPhones, Macs, and iPads. "We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update," the company said.

The decision comes just months after the company introduced its generative AI platform, Apple Intelligence, to users. Apple touted the summarized notifications feature as one that surfaces "what's most important" to users.

However, the feature has prompted criticism from some outlets, who complained that the generative AI powering Apple Intelligence notifications repeatedly made mistakes when summarizing news headlines.

The BBC raised serious complaints with Apple last month after an AI summary of a story on Luigi Mangione β€” the suspect behind the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson β€” falsely told some iPhone users that Mangione had shot himself.

It's the latest sign of the challenges Silicon Valley companies face with the technology that their industry has rallied around since the launch of ChatGPT.

Major tech companies like Google and OpenAI have also seen their AI generate major inaccuracies, raising concerns about the technology's potential to spread false information.

It's also a sign that Apple faces teething problems with a technology that CEO Tim Cook has called a "new chapter in Apple innovation."

Analysts have been examining whether Apple Intelligence can match the performance of generative AI offerings from rival firms and trigger an iPhone upgrade cycle.

Not all have been convinced it will. Apple received a "sell" downgrade this month from Craig Moffett, senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, who told Bloomberg that there are concerns consumers are "unmoved by AI functionality."

Read the original article on Business Insider

A Southwest pilot was removed from the cockpit by police after a TSA agent noticed he smelled of alcohol

By: Pete Syme
17 January 2025 at 02:48
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft taxis on the runway at San Diego International Airport for a departure for Las Vegas on November 18, 2024 in San Diego, California.
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737

Kevin Carter/Getty Images

  • A Southwest Airlines pilot was charged with driving under the influence as he prepared to fly.
  • David Paul Allsop was going through pre-flight checks when police entered the cockpit.
  • A TSA agent contacted police after screening him, saying he smelled of alcohol and seemed intoxicated.

A Southwest Airlines pilot was arrested shortly before takeoff on Wednesday.

David Paul Allsop, 52, was charged with driving under the influence after the incident in Savannah, Georgia, according to Chatham County Sherriff's Office records.

He was due to fly from Savannah to Chicago Midway Airport before airport police boarded the plane.

A Transportation Security Administration officer contacted law enforcement after "encountering an individual in the crew screening lane who smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated," an agency spokesperson told Business Insider.

"TSA always reminds passengers that if you see something, say something, and that is exactly what our Transportation Security Officer at Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport did when they saw something out of the norm," it said.

Allsop was performing pre-flight checks in the cockpit when the police asked him to step out for questioning, per an incident report seen by CNN and the New York Times.

CNN reported that the responding officer said there was a "noticeable odor emanating" from Allsop, who he described as having "bloodshot, watery eyes and a flushed complexion."

He told police he drank a "few light beers" the night before, the Times reported.

Allsop failed a field sobriety test and declined to take a blood test, the arrest report said, per CNN.

Data from Flightradar24 shows the Boeing 737 landed in Chicago nearly five hours later than scheduled.

In a statement shared with the outlets, Southwest said the "employee involved in the situation on Flight 3772 Wednesday morning from Savannah has been removed from duty."

"Customers were accommodated on other flights and we apologize for the disruption to their travel plans," it added.

Allsop was released after posting a $3,500 bond, the sheriff's office records show.

Chatham County Sherriff's Office, the TSA, and Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by Business Insider outside US working hours.

This isn't the first time an airline pilot has been arrested after being suspected of being under the influence.

Last March, a Delta Air Lines captain pleaded guilty to reporting for duty as a pilot while being impaired through drink or drugs, after Airport security officers found two bottles of JΓ€germeister in his luggage.

And in 2023, a United Airlines pilot was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after showing up to work more than six times over the legal alcohol limit for pilots.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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