AI chatbots unable to precisely summarise information, BBC finds

4 main synthetic intelligence (AI) chatbots are inaccurately summarising information tales, in line with analysis carried out by the BBC.

The BBC gave OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI content material from the BBC web site then requested them questions concerning the information.

It stated the ensuing solutions contained “vital inaccuracies” and distortions.

In a weblog, Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC Information and Present Affairs, stated AI introduced “countless alternatives” however the corporations creating the instruments had been “taking part in with hearth.”

“We reside in troubled instances, and the way lengthy will it’s earlier than an AI-distorted headline causes vital actual world hurt?”, she requested.

The tech corporations which personal the chatbots have been approached for remark.

In the research, the BBC requested ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity to summarise 100 information tales and rated every reply.

It obtained journalists who had been related specialists within the topic of the article to fee the standard of solutions from the AI assistants.

It discovered 51% of all AI solutions to questions concerning the information had been judged to have vital problems with some type.

Moreover, 19% of AI solutions which cited BBC content material launched factual errors, akin to incorrect factual statements, numbers and dates.

In her weblog, Ms Turness stated the BBC was in search of to “open up a brand new dialog with AI tech suppliers” so we will “work collectively in partnership to seek out options.”

She known as on the tech corporations to “pull again” their AI information summaries, as Apple did after complaints from the BBC that Apple Intelligence was misrepresenting information tales.

Some examples of inaccuracies discovered by the BBC included:

• Gemini incorrectly stated the NHS didn’t advocate vaping as an assist to give up smoking
• ChatGPT and Copilot stated Rishi Sunak and Nicola Sturgeon had been nonetheless in workplace even after they’d left
• Perplexity misquoted BBC Information in a narrative concerning the Center East, saying Iran initially confirmed “restraint” and described Israel’s actions as “aggressive”

Generally, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini had extra vital points than OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Perplexity, which counts Jeff Bezos as one among its traders.

Usually, the BBC blocks its content material from AI chatbots, but it surely opened its web site up during the exams in December 2024.

The report stated that in addition to containing factual inaccuracies, the chatbots “struggled to distinguish between opinion and truth, editorialised, and sometimes failed to incorporate important context.”

The BBC’s Programme Director for Generative AI, Pete Archer, stated publishers “ought to have management over whether or not and the way their content material is used and AI corporations ought to present how assistants course of information together with the dimensions and scope of errors and inaccuracies they produce.”