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Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Apple Inc., greets customers during the first day of in-store sales of the latest Apple products at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York, US, Friday, September 20, 2024.
Victor J. Blu | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple On Monday it released a software update for iPhones, iPads and Macs that turns on Apple Intelligence by default for users with supported devices.
Updates, iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3 and macOS Sequoia 15.3, also disable AI synthesis for news applicationswho have earned a reputation for twisting news push notifications to show inaccurate facts.
The release is a milestone in the launch of Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of artificial intelligence features. Apple Intelligence is a critical service for Apple that seeks to differentiate its products from competitors with an AI system built into iPhones and its other devices.
While Apple Intelligence is already featured in the company’s marketing for the latest iPhones, the rollout has been deliberate and limited. Apple says it is to allow testing new features and make sure it has enough server capacity. The entire Apple Intelligence suite is still officially in beta, and is only available in a handful of English-speaking countries.
Apple’s move to turn on Apple Intelligence by default is a step toward a more comprehensive rollout of the feature. Previously, users with supported iPhones — models that were released in 2024 as well as 2023 “Pro”-level models — were prompted to turn on Apple Intelligence when setting up their phone, a process that included downloading AI models from the Internet and some installation.
With the latest updates, Apple Intelligence will be activated by default when the latest software update is installed, expanding the number of users who are exposed to the software. Apple Intelligence is marketed as being able to rewrite text, generate images, and summarize long emails and message threads.
“For users new to or upgrading to iOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence will be enabled automatically during iPhone setup,” Apple said in the developer release notes for the update.
Users should navigate to the Apple Intelligence page in the Settings app to turn it off, according to Apple.
The latest software update also includes one of the most notable examples so far of Apple bringing back an AI feature after generating controversy and subpar results. Apple joins Google and Microsoft such as companies that have been forced to recall new AI features after generating harmful content or “hallucinations” that are not based in reality.
Apple Intelligence can take stacks of notifications and simplify them into a three-sentence notification. However, the BBC and other news outlets discovered in December that the feature can twist news headlines into inaccurate information.
At the beginning of the month, Apple’s system has confused notifications from the BBC sports app to say that “Brazilian tennis player Rafael Nadal comes out as gay”. Nadal is Spanish and married to Maria Francisca Perello.
The latest update disables Apple Intelligence for news and entertainment apps. Apple Intelligence has also been updated to show any notifications generated by its AI in progress, which means that notifications are created by generative AI and have been pushed by the app itself.
“We are pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and is pausing the news summary feature,” a BBC spokesperson told CNBC.
Apple told CNBC earlier this month that its notification summaries for news apps would return in a future update.
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