Dysfunctional Apple Intelligence feature removed after complaints
Though Apple Intelligence is a major selling point for the iPhone 16, it wasn’t available on Apple’s newest phones at launch. Following that Apple has been bringing its promised AI features to iOS 18 in parts but some of them don’t work as expected. As such the AI notification summaries that were touted at the iPhone 16 launch have been removed for the time being.
Apple Intelligence needs a lot of work and its notification summary feature in particular has fallen flat on its face on multiple occasions. The summarization often displays completely inaccurate information or omits crucial context. I’ve seen screenshots of AI summaries where users were mistakenly told that one of their parents had passed away or that their partner was breaking up with them. These incidents are so common that there’s a dedicated online community where users share their own notification summarization mishaps.
Samsung — arguably Apple’s biggest rival — is set to introduce a new AI feature set alongside the Galaxy S25 lineup this month at Galaxy Unpacked. Unlike Apple Intelligence however, industry insiders are claiming that this new AI toolset — namely an LLM-powered Bixby assistant — is a lot more complete. Multiple reports have come out saying that Samsung will leave Apple in the dust when it comes to an AI-powered smartphone experience.
Apple is taking its sweet time getting its AI features working but I have my fingers crossed that the wait will be worth it. The company is all in on AI and the upcoming iPhone 16E is going to have 8 GB of RAM to be able to run Apple Intelligence as well. Let’s hope that these issues are resolved sooner rather than later and people are delivered what they paid for.
In response to the overwhelming criticism of these summaries Apple has decided to halt the feature for news and entertainment notifications. This change has been made in the iOS 18.3 beta and will remain in effect until the company is able to sort out this mess. The fact that Apple Intelligence still remains incomplete — with iOS 18.4 to introduce new features as well — doesn’t bode well for the near future in my opinion. It seems like Apple’s AI dream will take a while to be fully realized.
Apple Intelligence promised a lot of new AI tools for the iPhone 16. | Video credit — Apple
Samsung — arguably Apple’s biggest rival — is set to introduce a new AI feature set alongside the Galaxy S25 lineup this month at Galaxy Unpacked. Unlike Apple Intelligence however, industry insiders are claiming that this new AI toolset — namely an LLM-powered Bixby assistant — is a lot more complete. Multiple reports have come out saying that Samsung will leave Apple in the dust when it comes to an AI-powered smartphone experience.
Apple is taking its sweet time getting its AI features working but I have my fingers crossed that the wait will be worth it. The company is all in on AI and the upcoming iPhone 16E is going to have 8 GB of RAM to be able to run Apple Intelligence as well. Let’s hope that these issues are resolved sooner rather than later and people are delivered what they paid for.
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