Upcoming iOS 18 AI feature concerns UK’s newspaper group

UK’s newspaper group has shown concerns over an upcoming iOS 18 feature that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and could potentially impact news publisher’s advertisements.

Apple will reveal the new iOS 18 operating system at its annual WWDC24 developer showcase. The company will mainstream AI technologies with this new software in iPhone and other devices. This iOS version will feature generative AI technologies to improve the user experience and automated tasks.

A previous report suggests that a feature for Safari browser called “Web Eraser” will let users remove or erase any part of a web page. This feature is built based on existing privacy features in Safari and helps users remove unwanted content from web pages.

This includes the removal of banner advertisements, in-content images, text, and even the entire page selection. These changes will be remembered next time when the user conducts another web search. However, users will have an option to revert the changes to default.

The News Media Association (NMA), a UK-based national, regional, and local media organization, raised concerns about this reported feature that could impact digital revenues in the industry reported Financial Times on Sunday.

A letter sent to Apple’s UK government affairs chief shows that journalism required funding and “advertising is a key revenue stream for many publishers.

NMA showed concerns over editorial accountability if AI tools selectively remove or change articles’ content. Therefore, a meeting has been announced between publishers and Apple to discuss the potential side-effect of this Safari web browser capability. Meanwhile, Apple has not officially announced details on the web eraser feature.