Apple Addresses iPhone Bug That Links 'Racist' to Donald Trump's Name in Voice-to-Text|

Apple reacted following a strange bug in its iPhone voice-to-text application that resulted in a surprise controversy. The tech giant confirmed that the bug made the name of former US President Donald Trump pop up when users typed out the word "racist."

In an email statement, Apple confirmed the issue and ensured that a solution is underway. The problem made headlines after several social media users posted videos of the anomaly.

As reported by TweakTown, Apple described that the glitch happens because of the speech recognition models employed in the feature. These models occasionally show words with similar phonetics before examining the context and offering the proper word.

Apple also explained that the problem was not with a single word but rather with several words starting with the letter "r," with "Trump" wrongly being proposed as a substitute in some instances.

"We are aware of a problem with the speech recognition engine behind Dictation and we are shipping a fix today," an Apple representative explained to Deadline.

A user on X (previously Twitter) posted the following, claiming, "Ok, so this is real. But not every time. Did it the first time, then sporadically. So I recorded it… 'Racist' momentarily flashes 'Trump' before switching. Weird."

A user responded with skepticism, stating, "Holy s**t, it's real! Apple iPhones substitute the term 'racist' for 'Trump' when utilizing the dictation option. Apple insists that it's in the process of correcting this 'bug'.

Reports suggest that the glitch appeared across multiple iPhone models. TweakTown noted that it may persist in the latest iOS version, iOS 18. However, the issue may be region-specific, as an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.3.1 outside the US did not experience the anomaly. Some speculate that Apple may have already started rolling out a fix.

The row also attracted criticism from Trump supporters, with some accusing Apple of political bias. This follows just after the tech giant unveiled a $500 billion investment plan in the US over the next four years.