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Subject: Re: apple intelligence not so intelligent
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2025 09:51:47 +1300
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On 2025-01-18 18:57:53 +0000, Colour Sergeant Bourne said:
> On 1/16/25 11:02 AM, badgolferman wrote:
>> Apple has come under intense scrutiny for rolling out an underbaked
>> AI-powered feature that summarizes breaking news — while often
>> butchering it beyond recognition.
>> 
>> For over a month, roughly as long as the feature has been available to
>> iPhone users, publishers have found that it consistently generates
>> false information and pushes it to millions of users.
>> 
>> Despite broadcasting a barrage of fabrications for weeks, Apple has yet
>> to meaningfully address the problem.
>> 
>> "This is my periodic rant that Apple Intelligence is so bad that today
>> it got every fact wrong in its AI a summary of Washington Post news
>> alerts," the newspaper's tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler wrote in a post
>> on Bluesky this week.
>> 
>> Fowler appended a screenshot of an alert, which claimed that Pete
>> Hegseth, who's been facing a confrontational confirmation hearing for
>> the role of defense secretary this week, had been fired by his former
>> employer, Fox News — which is false and not what the WaPo's syndication
>> of an Associated Press story actually said. The AI alert also claimed
>> that Florida senator Marco Cubio had been sworn in as secretary of
>> state, which is also false as of the time of writing.
>> 
>> "It's wildly irresponsible that Apple doesn't turn off summaries for
>> news apps until it gets a bit better at this AI thing," Fowler added.
>> 
>> The constant blunders of Apple's AI summaries put the tech's nagging
>> shortcomings on full display, demonstrating that even tech giants like
>> Apple are failing miserably to successfully integrate AI without
>> constantly embarrassing themselves.
>> 
>> AI models are still coming up with all sorts of "hallucinated" lies, a
>> problem experts believe could be intrinsic to the tech. After all,
>> large language models like the one powering Apple's summarizing feature
>> simply predict the next word based on probability and are incapable of
>> actually understanding the content they're paraphrasing, at least for
>> the time being.
>> 
>> And the stakes are high, given the context. Apple's notifications are
>> intended to alert iPhone users to breaking news — not sow distrust and
>> confusion.
>> 
>> The story also highlights a stark power imbalance, with news
>> organizations powerless to determine how Apple represents their work to
>> its vast number of users.
>> 
>> "News organizations have vigorously complained to Apple about this, but
>> we have no power over what iOS does to the accurate and expertly
>> crafted alerts we send out," Fowler wrote in a followup.
>> 
>> In December, the BBC first filed a complaint with Apple after the
>> feature mistakenly claimed that Luigi Mangione, the man who killed
>> UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself — an egregious
>> and easily disproven fabrication.
>> 
>> Last week, Apple finally caved and responded to the complaint, vowing
>> to add a clarifying disclaimer that the summaries were AI-generated
>> while also attempting to distance itself from bearing any
>> responsibility.
>> 
>> "Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making
>> improvements with the help of user feedback," a company spokesperson
>> told the BBC in a statement. "A software update in the coming weeks
>> will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization
>> provided by Apple Intelligence."
>> 
>> "We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected
>> notification summary," the company continued.
>> 
>> The disclaimer unintentionally points to the dubious value proposition
>> of today's AI: what's the point of a summarizing feature if the company
>> is forced to include a disclaimer on each one that it might be entirely
>> wrong? Should Apple's customers really be the ones responsible for
>> pointing out each time its AI summaries are spreading lies?
>> 
>> "It just transfers the responsibility to users, who — in an already
>> confusing information landscape — will be expected to check if
>> information is true or not," Reporters Without Borders technology and
>> journalism desk head Vincent Berthier told the BBC.
>> 
>> Journalists are particularly worried about further eroding trust in the
>> news industry, a pertinent topic given the tidal wave of AI slop that
>> has been crashing over the internet.
>> 
>> "At a time where access to accurate reporting has never been more
>> important, the public must not be placed in a position of
>> second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive," the National Union
>> of Journalists general secretary Laura Davison told the BBC.
>> 
>> https://futurism.com/apple-ai-butchering-news-summaries
> 
> Maybe so...but it's for the children and the environment :-)

According to a recent report, all the servers, cooling, etc. needed for 
this silly AI fad will be worse for the environment than all of the 
cars driving around in California.  :-\