False Luigi Mangione suicide report triggers BBC complaint to Apple AI

A false AI-powered headline indicating accused murderer Luigi Mangione had committed suicide is causing a row overseas.

According to the BBC, Apple Intelligence, which launched in the U.K. on Wednesday, produced a misleading tease to a story that “made it appear BBC News had published an article claiming Luigi Mangione, the man arrested following the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself.”

The headline appeared in a news summary blasted to iPhones across Great Britain.

The BBC responded by sending a complaint to Apple asking the tech giant to “fix the problem.”

“BBC News is the most trusted news media in the world,” a spokesperson said. “It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications.”

Apple reportedly declined to comment.

As the BBC notes, Mangione has not killed himself. He was arrested Monday in Pennsylvania, which is where he remains while awaiting extradition to New York. He’s being held in a jail cell by himself but is not under suicide watch, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. There have been no reports of self-harm nor any violence toward prison staff.

According to the BBC, the outlet is not the only news site to be the victim of misrepresentation at the hands of Apple AI.

Late last month, the company’s technology also appeared to flub a notification for a New York Times story about an arrest warrant being issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The summary headline read: “Netanyahu arrested.”

Apple AI notification summaries continue to be so so so bad

— Ken Schwencke (@schwanksta.com) 2024-11-21T19:22:27.650Z

The Israeli leader is not under arrest. A screenshot of the headline seeming to indicate otherwise was posted to social media by a ProPublica editor.