Apple Intelligence Considers Phishing Emails to Be “priority” Messages
Apple Intelligence may be smart, but it has a lot to learn, including the fact that phishing emails aren’t what they say they are. (You haven’t actually won any prizes, Apple Intelligence, so please don’t transfer money to anyone.)
As Android Authority reports , Apple Intelligence is currently struggling to weed out phishing and spam messages when prioritizing emails in its users’ inboxes. Filtering is part of the new Mail interface in iOS 18.1, which uses Apple Intelligence to scan your inbox and place the most important emails at the top of the list. In theory, you should open Mail in iOS 18.1 and see a curated list of urgent emails from colleagues, companies, and friends, rather than the usual jumbled collection of junk mail and spam. Some users are not entirely successful at this.
If you install the iOS 18.1 beta on your iPhone 15 Pro right now, phishing spam may not only end up at the top of your inbox, but also stand out as a critical email. One user on the iOSBeta subreddit posted an example he encountered while testing Apple Intelligence : The AI decided that an email from “Xfinity.com” was a priority and highlighted it at the top of its inbox. Of course, anyone accustomed to these types of emails will immediately recognize a phishing scheme in them – the message notifies the user of “account suspension due to billing issues,” which can be corrected by re-enrolling in automatic payments. Chances are there’s a fake website on the other end of the link that will happily copy your credit card details, but Apple’s artificial intelligence couldn’t tell the difference.
Other Reddit users in this thread reported similar experiences with Apple Intelligence prioritizing spam and phishing emails, suggesting that the AI is having trouble identifying these types of messages from actual emails from companies and organizations.
Apple Intelligence is still in beta
To be fair, Apple Intelligence is currently in beta. In fact, iOS 18.1 marks the first introduction of Apple’s artificial intelligence system, and it’s intended to allow developers to test it and provide feedback. For now, you’ll have to jump through a few hoops to even install Apple Intelligence on your iPhone 15 Pro, Mac, or iPad M series, so this isn’t a widespread vulnerability in the technology (yet). After all, the purpose of beta testing is to eradicate these kinds of problems before the software is released to the general public, and Apple is likely two or three months away from that on its current schedule. (It also helps that only the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max can use Apple Intelligence, limiting the number of users affected.)
However, beta or not, this is yet another example of how current AI is not a reliable way to instantly improve our technology. As useful as some of these new features may be, AI can and will make mistakes. He may even “hallucinate” or make things up completely . Hopefully, by the time Apple officially introduces Apple Intelligence to compatible devices, it will have trained the AI to be more cynical about the contents of your emails. Personally, I’d rather have none of my messages be prioritized than force me to deal with an obvious scam ASAP.