iOS 26 packs a surprisingly long list of Apple Intelligence upgrades, including the return of the most controversial AI feature Apple ever shipped: notification summaries for News and Entertainment apps.
News summaries were Apple Intelligence’s biggest initial misstep
The topic of AI seems intrinsically tied to controversies of all sorts. From ethical issues around LLM training practices to fears over job displacement, and the spread of misinformation and deepfakes.
When Apple Intelligence launched last year, it largely seemed to avoid major controversy—at least for a while.
AI image creation tools like Image Playground successfully deployed guardrails that prevented the same missteps made by other companies.
But one feature did bring notable negative buzz: notification summaries for news.
BBC News in particular took issue with Apple’s AI tools incorrectly summarizing content for notifications. One especially egregious example claimed that Luigi Mangione had shot himself—which the false summary attributed to the BBC in the notification.
Apple’s response at the time was to disable notification summaries entirely for two categories of apps: News and Entertainment.
Presumably, the latter category was disabled because apps like Podcasts and YouTube will often have news headline-style notifications, just like a news app might.
But in iOS 26 last month, the feature returned.
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