Apple is addressing a peculiar glitch in its automatic dictation feature after some iPhone users reported that the word “racist” momentarily appeared as “Trump” before correcting itself. The issue, which sparked controversy after a viral TikTok post, has led to accusations of political bias against the tech giant.
The problem was replicated multiple times and appeared to stem from phonetic similarities between the two words, according to an Apple spokesperson. “We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers Dictation and we are rolling out a fix today,” the company said in a statement.
Artificial intelligence expert John Burkey, a former member of Apple’s Siri team, suggested that the glitch might not have been purely technical. “This smells like a serious prank,” Burkey said. “The only question is: Did someone slip this into the data or slip into the code?” He noted that the issue arose after a server update but doubted that Apple’s AI training data was the root cause.
The controversy follows Apple’s recent struggles with AI-powered features. Last month, the company disabled a key function of its Apple Intelligence system after it generated inaccurate news summaries. In 2018, Siri faced backlash when it briefly displayed a nude image in response to a question about Donald Trump, an issue linked to Wikipedia edits.
The latest glitch surfaced shortly after Apple announced a $500 billion investment in the US over the next four years, including plans to manufacture AI servers at a new facility in Houston. The commitment came after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with President Donald Trump last week, reaffirming the company’s pledge to boost domestic investments.
