The headline reads:
Apple confirmed to Fox 56 on Wednesday that the bug has been resolved. The company did not disclose to the TV station the reason why their system might have associated President Donald Trump’s name with the word “racist” during speech recognition. According to NBC News, Apple explained that the speech recognition models in the diction feature could initially display words with similar phonetics until a more in-depth analysis can identify the intended word by the user. Apple further stated that the bug also led to other words containing the consonant “r” being replaced with “Trump.” When contacted by USA TODAY, both Apple and the White House did not immediately respond to inquiries about the glitch.
The iPhone diction feature bug gained attention on social media platform TikTok, although Trump and his administration have not publicly addressed the issue. In contrast, far-right figures such as Infowars host Alex Jones have seized upon the bug to suggest a conspiracy. Jones claimed in a post that Apple was engaging in a subliminal attack on President Trump by associating his name with the word “racist” when spoken through the diction feature. The bug became even more widespread after a TikTok user named Jess White shared a video demonstrating the issue, prompting comments from other users expressing frustration with Apple’s software.
This bug occurred shortly after Apple announced a substantial $500 billion investment in its U.S. operations, projects, and infrastructure. Trump hailed this investment as a success of his tariff policies, which included a 10% tariff on all imports from China. In a post on the social media platform Truth Social, Trump expressed gratitude towards Apple and its CEO Tim Cook, attributing the investment as a testament to the confidence in his administration’s policies. The bug, which substituted the word “racist” with “Trump” in the diction feature, has since been rectified according to reports.
Contributing to this report: Reuters
This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Apple dictation feature replacing ‘racist’ with ‘Trump’ fixed: Reports
