Man Learns He's Being Dumped Via 'Dystopian' AI Summary of Texts 18
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, NYC-based software developer Nick Spreen received a surprising alert on his iPhone 15 Pro, delivered through an early test version of Apple's upcoming Apple Intelligence text message summary feature. "No longer in a relationship; wants belongings from the apartment," the AI-penned message reads, summing up the content of several separate breakup texts from his girlfriend -- that arrived on his birthday, no less. Spreen shared a screenshot of the AI-generated message in a now-viral tweet on the X social network, writing, "for anyone who's wondered what an apple intelligence summary of a breakup text looks like." Spreen told Ars Technica that the screenshot does not show his ex-girlfriend's full real name, just a nickname.
This summary feature of Apple Intelligence, announced by the iPhone maker in June, isn't expected to fully ship until an iOS 18.1 update in the fall. However, it has been available in a public beta test of iOS 18 since July, which is what Spreen is running on his iPhone. It works akin to something like a stripped-down ChatGPT, reading your incoming text messages and delivering its own simplified version of their content. On X, Spreen replied to skepticism over whether the message was real in a follow-up post. "Yes this was real / yes it happened yesterday / yes it was my birthday," Spreen wrote. In response to a question about it being a fair summary of his girlfriend's messages, he wrote, "it is."
We reached out to Spreen directly via email and he delivered his own summary of his girlfriend's messages. "It was something along the lines of i can't believe you just did that, we're done, i want my stuff. we had an argument in a bar and I got up and left, then she sent the text," he wrote. How did he feel about getting the news via AI summary? "I do feel like it added a level of distance to it that wasn't a bad thing," he told Ars Technica. "Maybe a bit like a personal assistant who stays professional and has your back even in the most awful situations, but yeah, more than anything it felt unreal and dystopian."
This summary feature of Apple Intelligence, announced by the iPhone maker in June, isn't expected to fully ship until an iOS 18.1 update in the fall. However, it has been available in a public beta test of iOS 18 since July, which is what Spreen is running on his iPhone. It works akin to something like a stripped-down ChatGPT, reading your incoming text messages and delivering its own simplified version of their content. On X, Spreen replied to skepticism over whether the message was real in a follow-up post. "Yes this was real / yes it happened yesterday / yes it was my birthday," Spreen wrote. In response to a question about it being a fair summary of his girlfriend's messages, he wrote, "it is."
We reached out to Spreen directly via email and he delivered his own summary of his girlfriend's messages. "It was something along the lines of i can't believe you just did that, we're done, i want my stuff. we had an argument in a bar and I got up and left, then she sent the text," he wrote. How did he feel about getting the news via AI summary? "I do feel like it added a level of distance to it that wasn't a bad thing," he told Ars Technica. "Maybe a bit like a personal assistant who stays professional and has your back even in the most awful situations, but yeah, more than anything it felt unreal and dystopian."
Internet lore (Score:2)
New internet rule: Rule 304.
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Struggling to understand (Score:2, Troll)
how drivel like this is "newsworthy"
Is this what we've become?
We belong dead
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The post above feels very much like an AI summarization of TFS.
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how drivel like this is "newsworthy"
Because you squint really, really hard, you can blame it on Apple.
Don't shoot the messenger (Score:4)
That some people think it's okay to break up over text is what's actually dystopian. Having an AI assistant on your phone that summarizes your texts, isn't.
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We keep being told that AIs are superhuman capable intelligences, and yet they are dumber than a brick every time that common sense is required.
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You don't see a problem with giving the texts of other people so little consideration that you think a two half-sentence summary adequately represents their importance to you? Can't imagine why she broke up with him. He even used the breakup for internet points.
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He's a bad person because he used auto-summarize: Really, that's your standard?
He walked-out on her: Intelligent people know how important her texts are. Your surprise says more about you.
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TL;DR.
Re:Don't shoot the messenger (Score:4, Insightful)
What strikes me is that he claims this to be "awful situation", yet he is more interested in talking about his iPhone 15 Pro, and that it was on HIS BIRTHDAY, and talking about it feels to use Apple's newest assistant, rather than doing what people are normally doing in awful situations: talking about how it feels to be in a breakup; or just not talking about it, because he's devastated and still crying.
Additionally, in the full story they argue in a bar and he leaves. He interrupted the conversation, which explains why the partner has to use electronic means.
Re:Don't shoot the messenger (Score:4, Insightful)
he is more interested in talking about his iPhone 15 Pro, and that it was on HIS BIRTHDAY, and talking about it feels to use Apple's newest assistant, rather than doing what people are normally doing in awful situations
Precisely. The entire story, in a nutshell: Douche-canoe does something douchey then brags about how awesome he is because of his douchey tech thing, but much sad. So terrible.
Yet here it is... submitted and upvoted on /. because.... humanity is basically garbage.
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You could go all Lacan psychoanalyst and say he didn't really have a girlfriend, he had a mirror of himself. Or you could accept that people and situations are complex and you don't have a good handle on what happened, since you didn't actually talk to even one of the people who were there.
I'm missing something (Score:2)
I don't understand how he'd have learned about the breakup from a summary of texts that apparently had previously been sent to him. Did he somehow manage to not read these texts his girlfriend had already sent to him?
Was he in the habit of not reading messages from her, and just asking for a summary of them? If so, he comes across like a douche. Actually even without it, TFS makes him sound rather like a douche.
This guy is lucky (Score:2)
Some people are stuck in a toxic relationship with the kind of partner who would wait for your birthday to dump you and kick you out for years. This guy got out. Lucky him. Shitty birthday present but for the best.