Apple has promised to fix an iPhone keyboard dictation bug that shows the word “Trump” when a user says the word “racist.” When using the voice-to-text feature on Apple apps like Messages, a voice command for “racist” briefly displays “Trump” before delivering the intended word.
The glitch gained attention after users posted about it on social media. (We were unable to replicate the bug.)
“We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers dictation, and we are rolling out a fix as soon as possible,” Apple said in its statement to Fox News.
Apple has blamed the bug on the phonetic overlap between the two words. However, the same result surfaced for a few other words starting with the letter “r,” such as “rampant” and “rampage.”
“This smells like a serious prank,” John Burkey, a former member of Apple’s Siri team, tells The New York Times. “The only question is: Did someone slip this into the data or slip into the code?” Burkey added.
This news comes just days after Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly met President Trump in the Oval Office. After that meeting, Trump said Apple would shift some production to the US to avoid paying tariffs. Trump imposed a 10% tariff on goods from China, effective Feb. 4, and has threatened to impose at least a 25% tariff on foreign-made chips.
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On Monday, Apple shared details of its four-year, $500 billion United States investment plan. The money will be used to build an AI server manufacturing facility in Houston, produce silicon chips in Arizona, establish a manufacturing academy in Detroit, and create 20,000 new jobs.
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