In the ongoing public beta of the iOS 18.4 software update, Apple is rolling out a feature that will provide AI-generated summaries of App Store reviews. This new capability will utilize Apple Intelligence, the company’s proprietary AI technology, to distill user feedback into an overall review summary.
These review summaries will be created using large language models (LLMs), condensing critical insights into a brief paragraph, as detailed on Apple’s official site. Additionally, the summaries will be updated weekly for apps and games that receive a sufficient number of reviews — although Apple has not specified what that number is.
Users of the App Store can report any issues with the review feature by tapping and holding on the review, while developers can notify Apple of concerns through App Store Connect.
Initially, the AI summaries will be available in English in the U.S., with plans to expand to all apps that meet the review threshold in additional languages and markets throughout the year. iPadOS 18.4 will also support this feature.
This feature, first noticed by Macworld in a recent beta version, may unintentionally encourage unethical developers to manipulate ratings and review sections with artificial praise generated by bots or paid individuals, thus flooding the app with positive comments about its functionality or pricing.
Such practices are unfortunately common in the app industry and across any platform offering product reviews. The addition of AI-generated summaries might exacerbate this issue, as consumers could rely heavily on these summaries instead of thoroughly examining all reviews, both favorable and unfavorable.
Moreover, the feature challenges Apple’s AI to effectively identify and present any negative feedback or concerns from App Store reviews within these AI summaries.
Apple isn’t alone in exploring AI for review analysis; Amazon implemented AI-generated summaries for product reviews on its site in 2023. Additionally, Google’s Gemini AI offers capabilities for summarizing product reviews, as outlined in this developer tutorial. Google Maps also adopted AI-powered review summaries last year.
The AI summaries are currently accessible to beta testers using the latest iterations (iOS 18.4, beta 2, and iPadOS 18.4, beta 2) and are expected to be available to the broader public in April, coinciding with the official launch of the software update.
Other exciting features anticipated in this update include a broader range of supported languages for Apple Intelligence, access to this technology for users in the EU, Visual Intelligence capabilities on the iPhone 15 Pro, new Control Center functionalities for Siri, and an AI-driven feature that prioritizes important notifications.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
Fanpage: TechArena.au
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