Key Takeaways.
- On February 2, iPhone users noticed that the voice-to text software often transcribed the word “racist” as “Trump”. Apple has acknowledged the problem and blamed a glitch which makes it difficult for AI to distinguish between words that contain “r” or have a phonetic overlapping. Experts, however, believe that there is no way to have a phonetic crossover between these two words. Apple has begun to fix the problem.
iPhone users were in for a surprise on Tuesday when their phone’s voice-to-text feature suddenly started swapping the word “racist” with Trump” briefly before correcting it to racist again.
Although the The glitch does not happen every time you use the word “racist,” but it is still a delicate issue, given the current political tensions across the country after Trump’s election. Apple has acknowledged the glitch, and stated that it is due to a bug which they are working on fixing. Apple spokesperson:
Apple is aware of a problem with the speech recognition system that powers Dictation. We are rolling out a solution today.
It appears the Dictation service had trouble distinguishing words containing the letter “r” due to the phonetic overlap. The company did not explain why the word “racist,” was always mistaken for “Trump.”
Is this really an honest mistake? Although this swap may appear to be an honest mistake, experts in speech recognition say that the overlap of phonetic sounds could not have been the cause.
Peter Bell is a professor of Speech Technology at the University of Edinburgh. He said that even though the two words have the letter “r”they are not phonetically alike enough to confuse AI. It’s likely that someone deliberately tweaked the underlying software to make this switch.
It comes at a moment when there is already a lot tension between Trump’s administration and Apple.
- First, Trump decided to impose a 10% additional tax on all goods imported from China. Apple is a company that manufactures most of its products in China. This would be a disaster.
- It is likely that this is what led Apple to announce an investment of $500 billion in the US. The tech giant has plans to expand and create new facilities. Apple did not explicitly state that increased taxes were the reason for its investment. Trump believes that the timing is the only plausible explanation.
Second, there is the DEI issue (diversity equity and inclusion). Trump decided to demolish all DEI programs and initiativesafter he came to power. Apple shareholders voted in a recent meeting against scraping DEI on the board’s insistance.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said that the company aims to create a work environment where everyone is able to perform at their best. Apple will keep the DEI framework. They’ll still have to make adjustments, however, given the new legal landscape.
Trump was furious and slammed the company. Rather than making adjustments, it suggested that the DEI framework be completely scrapped.
It seems that a disgruntled Apple employee could have tweaked the software to replace the word “racists” with “Trump”. However, without any evidence, we’ll just have to accept Apple’s version. Add Techreport To Your Google News Feed.
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Vlad is Techreport’s in-house Executive Editor. With over a decade of experience in tech content, he’s passionate about computer hardware, an advocate of online privacy, and strongly believes in the open-source, scarce-money nature of cryptocurrency. Read more
When he’s not working, he’s traveling with his partner and their cat, learning Python, or reading good books. He never owned a PC he did not build. Read less
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