Apple’s AI summaries are hilariously bad sometimes

The era of Apple Intelligence officially kicked off with last month’s release of iOS 18.1. Apple has taken its time to introduce AI features into the iPhone, which is consistent with its ‘slow and steady wins the race’ approach to product releases.

The company’s first round of AI features includes generative writing tools, an image cleanup function, improvements to Siri, and, perhaps most consequentially, the introduction of notification summaries.

“Apple Intelligence helps users prioritize and stay in the moment with notification summaries that allow users to scan long or stacked notifications with key details right on the Lock Screen, such as when a group chat is particularly active,” says Apple.

The problem, however, is that the notification summary feature appears to have a mind of its own — at least sometimes.

Apple’s notification summary feature is head-scratchingly strange

The feature was introduced in the recent iOS 18.1 software update

Users have been quick to point out that their AI-driven notification summaries have been hit or miss, to put it charitably.

Our own Pocket-lint writers have also been subject to the oddities of the notification summary feature as well, resulting in more than a few chuckles.

It appears that Apple’s AI algorithm is in need of some additional tuning before its summarization capabilities can be fully realized. Considering the many months of testing that the company has prioritized for its Apple Intelligence feature set, it’s interesting to see this feature release in such a half-baked state.

In the meantime, it’s fairly easy to toggle off the notification summarization feature if it’s not gelling with you. Mercifully, Apple has made it easy enough to fine-tune the feature on a per-app basis, so you can disable summaries on certain apps without affecting others.

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The Apple Intelligence roll out is now in progress

Apple’s suite of AI-powered tools are releasing in waves

Apple / Pocket-lint

The very first batch of AI tools has already hit the iPhone, but things have been relatively mundane so far. It’s the release of iOS 18.2, which is expected to land sometime in early December, that has my attention. This upcoming release is a big one, as it’ll bring with it the following major AI additions:

• Genmoji, which is a generative emoji creation tool
• Image Playground, which is a generative photo generation app
• Image Wand, which allows you to re-imagine your rough sketches using AI
• Visual Intelligence, which is an iPhone 16 series exclusive feature that lets you point your camera at real-world objects and inquire about them
• Native integration with ChatGPT and enhancements to Siri’s capabilities

Considering all the attention the relatively innocuous notification summary feature has received, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple stealthily tweaks its algorithm in time for the public release of iOS 18.2. Part of me hopes that the feature remains unpatched, so I can continue to glance at my iPhone’s lock screen with bemusement every few hours.

Have you encountered a wacky AI notification summary? Share it with us in the comments below.

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