Apple says it will give a software fix for an unusual and poorly timed transcription problem shown in multiple tap videos. The problem led to some iPhones represent the word “Trump” when performing speech-to-text transcription with words that contain “racist”.
An Apple spokesperson said that the company was aware of the problem, that it attributed to a problem with speech recognition model and said, “We have been rolled out a solution.” Apple said “phonetic overlap” with the words with the consonant r were the bug activated.
In our own informal test, CNet could not get an iOS version 18.1.1 to display the word “Trump” when using words, including “racist”, “Rabarb”, “Rhythmic,” “Ramp” or “Ruffles”. The New York Times reported that it could replicate the problem several times.
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A newer version of iOS, 18.3.1 was released earlier in February.
It is possible that the proposed word was capitalized as the start of a sentence, not necessary as a correct name. And instead of referring to the last name of the president, the use of “Trump” can be a reference to the word that means to defeat or gain an advantage.
A former Apple employee speculated in the time that someone who works on Apple’s software deliberately programmed in the glitch.
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But Haibing LU, assistant professor at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, thinks that the embarrassing error can simply be a mistake.
“STEM-to-Text systems depend on probabilistic language models that predict words based on sound patterns and context,” Lu said to CNET in an e-mail. “If audio-disadvantage is faltering or words too similar, the system can choose an odd alternative before it tries to correct automatically.”
This accident highlights both the current technical limits and the biased challenges that are inherent in large language models, said Lu.
Another expert noted that AI has its limitations, and errors such as these can trust the new technology.
“AI is only as smart as the data on which it is trained,” says Scott Stephenson, founder and CEO of Deepgram, an AI platform that works in APIs for text-to-speech.
Stephenson said that the bug is more evidence that “voice recognition should be about understanding, not assuming,” and notes that “the goal is not only accuracy, it’s trust.”
Apple did not say exactly when a solution will be issued.
The news of the bug emerged in the same week that Apple, the world’s largest technology company, announced that it is investing $ 500 million in the US, including money for Apple TV Plus Content creation and around 20,000 new jobs. The company’s CEO, Tim Cook of the company, met President Donald Trump last week.
