Apple is working on fixing a strange glitch in its iPhone dictation feature that sometimes changes the word “Trump” to “racist” under certain, unclear conditions. The problem caught attention on Tuesday after a video showing this issue spread widely on TikTok and other social media. Although The Verge couldn’t recreate the bug, Apple has confirmed it exists.
An unnamed Apple spokesperson told The New York Times and Fox News, “We know about the issue with the speech recognition system used for dictation, and we’re working on a fix as quickly as possible.” Apple says the problem is likely due to the similar sounds of “Trump” and “racist,” and other words starting with “r” might also be affected.
However, not everyone agrees with this explanation. John Burkey, who used to work on Apple’s Siri team, told The New York Times that the issue seems suspicious and could be a prank by someone inside the company. He didn’t provide any proof for this claim, though.
The timing of this bug is interesting. It came out just a day after Apple announced plans to invest over $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. This big investment comes at a time when trade tensions are high between Apple and the Trump administration, including existing tariffs on Chinese goods and threats of more tariffs on chips.
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While Apple says the issue is a technical glitch, some people are still wondering if there’s more to it, especially since it involves the name of the former President during ongoing trade disputes.
For now, Apple is focused on fixing the problem and plans to release a solution soon. Until then, iPhone users might notice the odd word swap when using dictation. The exact cause of the bug is still unclear, and Apple hasn’t commented further on the speculation about where it might have come from.
Source: The Verge
