Apple is working to resolve a major issue with its speech-to-text Dictation tool after social media users discovered that saying the word “racist” into an iPhone sometimes resulted in the word “Trump” appearing instead.
The tech giant attributed the error to a flaw in its speech recognition model, which struggles to differentiate between words containing an “r.”
Apple Responds to Speech-to-Text Controversy
“We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers Dictation and are rolling out a fix today,” an Apple spokesperson confirmed.
However, speech recognition expert Professor Peter Bell from the University of Edinburgh questioned this explanation, calling it “just not plausible.” He suggested that the issue was more likely caused by someone altering the software behind Apple’s Dictation system.
Viral Videos Show Dictation Error
Several users shared videos online demonstrating the error—sometimes the Dictation tool correctly transcribed “racist,” while in other cases, it briefly replaced it with “Trump” before automatically correcting itself.
The BBC attempted to replicate the mistake but was unsuccessful, indicating Apple’s fix may already be taking effect.
Experts Question Apple’s Explanation
Prof. Bell disputed Apple’s claim that the mistake was due to phonetic overlap, explaining that AI speech recognition models are trained on massive datasets and should have a high level of accuracy.
“For less well-resourced languages, AI training issues could arise,” he said. “But in this case, it probably points to someone with access to the process.”
A former Apple AI engineer told The New York Times, “This smells like a serious prank.”
Apple Faces AI Challenges
This isn’t the first time Apple has had to correct an AI-related issue. Last month, the company suspended its AI-generated news summaries after mistakenly publishing false headlines—including one claiming that tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
Apple recently announced a $500 billion investment in the U.S. over the next four years, which includes building a major data center in Texas to support its AI initiatives.
Meanwhile, CEO Tim Cook suggested that the company may need to adjust its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies in response to former President Donald Trump’s calls for an end to DEI programs.
