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Earlier this week, multiple iOS users reported that the Apple dictation feature incorrectly transcribed the word “racist” as “Trump,” before displaying the correct word. The substitution was publicly documented via videos on TikTok and other platforms, prompting Apple to issue a public statement and roll out a fix.
iPhone users publicly document the mistake
Reports of the mistaken transcription first surfaced on Tuesday. iPhone users recorded videos of themselves saying the word “racist” aloud while the dictation feature was enabled. Apple’s AI model would initially write “Trump” before quickly correcting to “racist,” the actual word that was said.
After more and more iPhone users said they were also experiencing the issue, publications including The New York Times were able to replicate the error.
Apple blames swap on phonetic overlap
The issues appeared to begin after an update to Apple’s servers earlier in the week. Apple attributes the transcription error on a phonetic overlap between words that contain the r consonant, saying that it’s difficult for the dictation AI tool to distinguish between them.
“We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers Dictation and we are rolling out a fix today,” Apple told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Apple said that other words that contain the r consonant could also cause the same bug. eWeek was not able to replicate the transcription error on Thursday, which suggests that the fix has indeed been rolled out to iPhones.
Former Siri team member casts doubt on Apple’s explanation
Not everyone believes Apple’s official statement, however. John Burkey, a former member of Apple Siri’s team who is still in “regular contact” with his former colleagues, told The New York Times that the bug seemed more like a deliberate prank than an accidental error, in his opinion.
Burkey said the fact that the word corrected itself indicates that a change was made to either the code or the data that powered the speech recognition AI tool. “This smells like a serious prank,” Burkey said. “The only question is: Did someone slip this into the data or slip into the code?”
The transcription error comes on the heels of Apple’s announcement earlier this week to invest more than $500 billion and hire more than 20,000 people in the United States. The tech company also announced plans to build a new factory in Texas, likely in response to Trump’s tariff on Chinese imports, which include iPhones and other Apple products.