Apple Reaches $250 Million Settlement Over Claims It Misled People on A.I.
“Apple agreed to a $250 million settlement over claims it misled consumers about the capabilities of its artificial intelligence system, Apple Intelligence. The settlement resolves lawsuits alleging Apple oversold the features of the iPhone 16 and some iPhone 15 models. Apple denied wrongdoing but acknowledged the challenges in the global technology race to dominate A.I.
Some iPhone owners will be eligible to receive $25 to $95 over claims that the tech giant oversold its artificial intelligence system, Apple Intelligence.
Apple agreed on Tuesday to pay $250 million to settle legal claims that it misled consumers about the abilities of its artificial intelligence system, Apple Intelligence, according to court filings.
The settlement resolves a handful of class action lawsuits filed against Apple last year, which claimed the company oversold what its product could do during its rollout in 2024. Those suits were consolidated last year by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where a judge still needs to approve the settlement.
Consumers who purchased an iPhone 16 and some models of the iPhone 15 between June 2024 and March 2025 will be eligible to collect up to $95 per device, according to the filings. As part of the settlement, Apple denied any wrongdoing.
The settlement underscores Apple’s challenges in a global technology race to dominate A.I. The iPhone maker has largely sat it out, in part because it hasn’t built its own A.I. models like Google’s Gemini. Tech companies like Microsoft and Nvidia soared in value as they bet heavily on the technology.
Since “the launch of Apple Intelligence, we have introduced dozens of features across many languages that are integrated across Apple’s platforms,” Marni Goldberg, an Apple spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.”
Apple first teased Apple Intelligence in June 2024 as an answer to products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company promised big improvements to its personal assistant, Siri, which has been part of its devices for more than a decade.
Apple also said it planned to introduce A.I. features to summarize notifications and offer help on improving writing in emails and text messages. In advertisements, the actor Bella Ramsey used Apple Intelligence to remember someone’s name and to catch up on an email.
But those features weren’t available on the iPhones that Apple shipped in September 2024. Instead, the company gradually rolled out the promised features and soon ran into problems. Notification summaries misrepresented news reports, for example, and Apple disabled that feature. In March 2025, Apple delayed the release of an upgraded Siri over quality problems.
Apple misrepresented the “capabilities of the series 16 iPhone and deceived millions of consumers into spending hundreds of dollars on a phone they did not need, based on features that do not exist,” according to one of the class action lawsuits.
In December, Apple announced the retirement of its head of A.I., John Giannandrea. In January, the company said it would use Google’s Gemini to power its A.I. products, including Siri.
David McCabe is a Times reporter who covers the complex legal and policy issues created by the digital economy and new technologies.
Kalley Huang is a Times reporter in San Francisco, covering Apple and the technology industry.“
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