Apple is aimed at a particular problem in its automatic dictation function after some iPhone users reported that the word “racist” has momentarily appeared as “Trump” before correcting themselves. The question, which aroused controversy after a viral Tiktok post, led to accusations of political prejudice against the technology giant.
The problem has been reproduced several times and seemed to come from phonetic similarities between the two words, according to an Apple spokesperson. “We are aware of a problem with the voice recognition model that feeds the dictation and we are deploying a corrective today,” the company said in a press release.
Artificial intelligence expert John Burkey, a former member of the Apple Siri team, suggested that the problem may not be purely technical. “It smells of serious stuffing,” said Burkey. “The only question is: Did anyone slip this into the data or slip into the code?” He noted that the problem appeared after an update of the server, but doubted that the AI training data was the deep cause.
The controversy follows Apple’s recent difficulties with the features fueled by AI. Last month, the company disabled a key function of its Apple Intelligence system after generating inaccurate information summaries. In 2018, Siri faced a backlash when he briefly displayed a bare image in response to a question on Donald Trump, a problem related to Wikipedia changes.
The last problem has surfaced shortly after Apple announced an investment of $ 500 billion in the United States over the next four years, including plans to make AI servers in a new installation in Houston. The commitment came after Apple CEO Tim Cook met President Donald Trump last week, reaffirming the company’s commitment to stimulate interior investments.