Apple blames ‘phonetic overlap’ for iOS dictation replacing ‘racist’ with ‘Trump’

Apple says that “phonetic overlap” is to blame for a peculiar glitch in the iPhone’s dictation feature. Over the last several days, the “bug” has gained traction on various social networks including TiKTok. In one video on TikTok, you can see an iPhone user using the built-in dictation feature to clearly say the word “racist,” only for the iPhone to moementarily transcribe it as “Trump.” The transcription quickly corrects itself before being finalized. An Apple spokeswoman told The New York Times that the issue is due to a “phonetic overlap” between the two words and that the company is working on a fix. John Burkey, a former member of the Siri team at Apple who is “still in regular contact with the team,” says the issue began “after an update to Apple’s servers.” Burkey is skeptical of the “phonetic overlap” excuse and said it “smells like a serious prank” by someone inside Apple. The issue appeared to begin after an update to Apple’s servers, said John Burkey, the founder of Wond ... Read full article.