Apple Confirms iPhone Voice-to-Text Glitch Linking 'Racist' to 'Trump'

Cupertino, CA – February 25, 2025 – Apple has acknowledged a peculiar issue with its iPhone voice-to-text feature, wherein the word “racist” is briefly transcribed as “Trump” during dictation.

The problem appears to occur intermittently within the iOS dictation system, a tool that leverages advanced speech recognition technology to convert spoken words into text. Users have reported that when uttering “racist,” the system momentarily displays “Trump” before either correcting itself or, in some cases, retaining the erroneous transcription. Apple has characterized the issue as a technical malfunction rather than an intentional design choice, emphasizing its commitment to resolving the matter.

“We are aware of the issue affecting voice-to-text transcription and are working to address it to ensure accurate dictation for all users,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. The company declined to provide further details on the root cause or a specific timeline for the fix.

Some users have speculated that the error reflects an underlying bias in Apple’s algorithms, though no evidence has surfaced to substantiate claims of intentional manipulation. Experts suggest the mistake likely stems from a misfire in the machine learning models powering the dictation feature, which are trained on vast datasets of spoken language to predict and interpret user input. Phonetic similarities or contextual missteps could account for the odd substitution, though the precise mechanics remain unclear.

This is not the first time Apple’s language processing systems have faced scrutiny. The company’s autocorrect and dictation tools have a history of occasional quirks, from innocuous word swaps to more jarring misinterpretations. However, the politically charged nature of this particular glitch—associating “racist” with President Donald Trump—has amplified its visibility, fueling debates about technology’s neutrality in an era of heightened polarization. 17GEN4.com