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Apple said it is working on fixing a bug in its dictation feature after a viral TikTok post showed an iPhone suggest the word “Trump” when its user said the word “racist.”
The video shows a user say “racist” while using the iPhone’s speech-to-text feature, and the device briefly transcribes the word as “Trump” before landing on “racist.” Others who tried out the feature had the same results, though it didn’t happen for every iPhone user.
Apple told NBC News that a glitch in its speech recognition technology is suggesting the name “Trump” when users say words that begin with the “r” consonant.
“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 Tuesday.
The bug has raised questions about the effectiveness of Apple’s artificial intelligence. However, John Burkey, a former employee on Apple’s Siri team who now runs an AI startup, told The New York Times the glitch might not have been a coincidence.
“This smells like a serious prank,” Burkey said. “The only question is: Did someone slip this into the data or slip into the code?”
Allegations of racism have dogged President Donald Trump since before he entered politics. His anti-immigrant platform and his remarks over the years about nonwhite groups and individuals have further propelled those claims. Yet those accusations have done little, if anything, to loosen his iron grip on the Republican Party; Trump even managed to expand his appeal among nonwhite voters in the 2024 election.
Since taking office, Trump has launched an aggressive campaign to erase diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the federal government and in the private sector. And many tech companies have made moves to conform to the administration’s anti-DEI efforts by rolling back their own diversity programs and roles.
On Tuesday, Apple shareholders, by contrast, voted against cutting diversity measures, leading Trump to speak publicly against that decision. “APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM,” he posted on Truth Social on Wednesday.