Apple makes a mistake: word ‘racist’ automatically turns into ‘Trump’

Apple has made a striking mistake, which automatically changes the word ‘racist’ to ‘Trump’. How is this?

Apple makes striking error

A striking error from Apple has been discovered on several iPhones. Different users on social media have problems if the iPhone wants to type the word ‘racist’. With the dictation function on the iPhone, spoken text can be converted into written words, but that does not always go well. Now it appears that transcribbing the word ‘racist’ goes wrong, because the word ‘Trump’ appears on the iPhone.

Then the text quickly corrects to ‘racist’, but the problem is at least striking. Apple has since responded to the error and has indicated that it will quickly come up with a solution. According to the company, the cause of the wrong spelling is the phonetic overlap between the words ‘racist’ and ‘Trump’ in English. View here what the software fault on the iPhone looks like:

Racist changes to Trump

The error at Apple does indeed seem caused by the phonetic similarities between the words ‘Trump’ and ‘Racist’. The dictation function on the iPhone works with machine learning. With the help of algorithms, the system recognizes spoken words that are converted into text. The problem with these algorithms is that the context of the word is also included. In recent years, the words ‘Trump’ and ‘racist’ have probably been used more often in the same context.

This context is important when transcribing spoken text, so that the iPhone can doubt between ‘Trump’ or ‘Racist’ due to the phonetic overlap. The emphasis and pronunciation of the speaker also influence the way in which spoken text is converted into written words. That explains why some Apple users do suffer from the mistake and others do not. In the Dictafoon app, the similarities between the words are fairly visible:

Not an error from Apple?

Although Apple has come up with an explanation, not everyone seems convinced that it is actually an error from the company. For example, there are several conspiracy theories that say it is an internal joke at Apple. John Burkey, a former Apple employee of the team that is about Siri, certainly does not believe the explanation of the company. He also expects it to be a joke from an employee.

According to him, a code in Apple’s systems causes the error. This code was probably entered manually, so that the word ‘Trump’ appears when someone says ‘racist’. In any case, it is certain that Tim Cook will not be happy with this software fault, because he is negotiating with Donald Trump about the position that Apple has with all the import rates that have been introduced. It is therefore no surprise that Apple wants to remedy the problem as quickly as possible and now work hard on a solution.