"Even the voice to text algorithm knows"— Internet reacts to iPhones' diction feature transcribing the word “racist” as “Trump"

Apple's recent glitch wherein iPhones transcribe the word "racist" as "Trump" before getting autocorrected has amassed varied reactions from netizens. The multinational corporation announced via a spokesperson's statement on February 25, 2025, that it was working toward repairing the error in its speech-to-text feature on iPhones.

Apple's spokesperson mentioned in the statement:

"We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers dictation and we are rolling out a fix today."

The glitch has garnered outrage from supporters of the president and conservative commentators like Alex Jones. Moreover, NBC News' assignment editor, Austin Mullen, admitted to trying out the faulty feature and reported:

"I also tested voice-to-text on iPhone, speaking the word “racist.” For a brief moment, it switches the word to “Trump,” and then BACK to “racist.”"

Internet users expressed their opinions on Apple's transcribing glitch via X, wherein an X user indirectly agreed to the diction feature interchanging the word "racist" with the president's name and tweeted:

"even the voice to text algorithm knows"

"i don’t see a problem with this feature? it’s not presenting any false information ?" an X user commented.

"Why are they “fixing” something that isn’t even broken??" another X user mentioned.

"Why? It’s not like the bug was inaccurate or anything," an internet user stated.

Some netizens also praised Apple's act of taking responsibility for the transcribing bug and defended the glitch as an error:

"Apple's swiftly fixing this iPhone dictation glitch—proof they're committed to tech that’s accurate, not politically charged. The "racist" to "Trump" mix-up? Just a harmless AI hiccup, not a conspiracy. Trust Apple to keep innovation bias-free!" an X user tweeted.

"That's an interesting update! It’s always good to see companies addressing issues with their features," a netizen said.

"Is this a technical glitch or a candid reflection? Perhaps the iPhone is merely echoing the sentiments of many," another netizen commented.

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"APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES"— Trump criticizes Apple following company's rejection of outside shareholder's proposal

According to a report by Business Standard dated February 26, 2025, Donald Trump recently criticized Apple after the company's investors rejected an outside shareholder's proposal to conclude its DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives. Taking to Truth Social on February 26, 2025, the president wrote:

“APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM.”

It is speculated that the president's comment against Apple was to put forth his campaign to erase DEI policies from workplaces in the United States. On the other hand, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, mentioned that the multinational company never followed any hiring targets or quotas.

Additionally, Apple agreed to the possibility of making certain adjustments to its hiring program and concluded a negative vote during its annual meeting.

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Apple's transcribing issue is not the first time Trump's name got involved in a technical glitch

As per Variety's report dated February 25, 2025, at the time of the election campaign in 2024, Alexa- Amazon's voice-based assistant gave varying answers to the question "Why should I vote for Kamala Harris?" and "Why should I vote for Donald Trump?".

When Amazon's voice-enabled assistant was asked for a perspective about voting for Trump, Alexa mentioned that it couldn't offer content that promoted a specific candidate or political party. However, Alexa gave detailed reasoning when the same question was asked in Harris' context in some cases. This resulted in Amazon admitting that there was an error— however, it was fixed quickly.

Another incident on similar lines took place on Election Day (November 5, 2024) when Google search prompts for "Where can I vote for Harris?" displayed a map of the voting centers, but the same search result didn't show up for "Where can I vote for Trump?" Google justified the same, stating that the search results for Harris were different because that also happens to be the name of a Texas county.

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Offering a reason for its recent diction feature glitch, Apple stated that the speech recognition feature can temporarily display words having phonetic overlap before displaying the correct word.