Since they were first enabled last year, I have frequently found Apple Intelligence’s notification summaries for emails to be something less than helpful. Here are some I spotted in just the past few days.

A Pricey Used Book

The notification summary:

That’s one expensive book.

The actual email:

Humans readily understand this style of dollars and cents pricing. Robots, it seems, do not.

Excessive Addition (And Alarmingly Incorrect Math)

The notification summary:

I took two (wicked fun) ebike rides, not three…

The actual email:

…oh, I see what happened here.

Hang on, though. As friend-of-the-site Alex S. pointed out to me, even the math is wrong. $1.28 + $1.17 + $2.45 = $4.90. Setting aside the incorrect extra addition, how did the initial summary get to $5.89? Whence came that extra 99¢?

Incorrect Capitalization

The notification summary:

Did I buy running shoes from my doctor?

The actual email:

No, I did not.

If we set aside the inaccurate addition in the second example, each one of these mistakes is understandable, but still completely stupid. If a human made these errors, you’d correct them, and expect them to get it right in the future. When it’s AI slop, however, it’s hard to envision how the system actually improves.