iPhones are briefly changing ‘racist’ to ‘Trump’ due to an iOS dictation issue

A bizarre bug is causing iPhones to automatically change the word “racist” to “Trump” when using the built-in dictation feature in iOS. The issue, which seems to have been by TikTok users, crops up when using the voice-to-text feature in Apple apps like Messages.

When speaking the word “racist,” iOS briefly transcribes the text as “Trump” before changing it back to the intended word. It’s not clear what could cause this behavior. Engadget was able to replicate the issue, as you can see in the GIF below.

Apple told  it was due to “phonetic overlap between the two words,” despite the fact that the two words do not sound similar. That also doesn’t explain why “racist,” with a lowercase “r” would transcribe as “Trump” — seemingly a reference to our current president — and not “trump,” the noun. An AI expert who once worked on Siri told the paper it could be a “serious prank” on the part of an Apple employee.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Whether it’s a bug or prank, it surfaced at a particularly embarrassing time for the iPhone maker, which announced on Monday that it planned to invest in manufacturing facilities for AI servers. The investment, most of which was already planned, came after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with President Donald Trump at the White House last week.