The tech giant has been forced to stop a controversial AI-powered news summary tool after it repeatedly mangled headlines, sending out false and baffling notifications to users. 

In one high-profile blunder, Apple's AI falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. The BBC, one of several media organisations burned by Apple's half-baked tech, promptly filed a complaint. 

With mounting pressure, Apple has suspended the feature for news and entertainment apps. Users will no longer see AI summaries in their notifications, and the company promised to tweak the system for other apps by italicising AI-generated summaries to avoid confusion. 

“We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update,” an Apple spokesperson said. 

The now-disabled feature generated so many inaccurate headlines that Fox News looked accurate. Media giants such as Sky News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post also reported being victims of the AI's "hallucinations." One particularly chaotic example saw a BBC alert twisted into an absurd combination of fabricated tragedies, sparking outrage online. 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the fiasco, with spokesperson Vincent Berthier saying: “This feature should not be rolled out again until there is zero risk it will publish inaccurate headlines.” 

AI expert Jonathan Bright from the Alan Turing Institute didn’t mince words about the broader implications: “As well as misinforming the public, such hallucinations have the potential to damage trust in the news media further.” 

Media outlets have long struggled with waning trust, and Apple’s clumsy experiment has only fuelled the fire. Critics argue the company prioritised being first over being accurate—a fatal flaw in the delicate ecosystem of modern news consumption. 

The bungled AI experiment also shows how far behind Jobs’ Mob is regarding the new technology.