4 ms·

Apple's Dictation System Transcribes the Word 'Racist' as 'Trump'

53 points by ksec 2y ago

ksec 2y ago
https://archive.is/cxVd1 https://archive.is/cxVd1
bell-cot 2y ago
Also - 23 points and 4 comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43183435 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43183435
mdhb 2y ago
[flagged]
- skc 2y ago
  I saw this headline and assumed it was a hoax of some sort
  - api 2y ago
    Satire is dead.
    - InDubioProRubio 2y ago
      Little faun, satyr dad so proud
voidfunc 2y ago
Someone getting fired...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
lolinder 2y ago
> An Apple spokeswoman blamed the issue on phonetic overlap between the two words, and said the company was working on a fix. I don't envy the spokeswoman her job, but this is hilariously off base from a linguistics perspective: * /tɹʌmp/ * /ˈɹeɪ.sɪst/ One word is two syllables, the other is one. One word has a bunch of sibilance and the other has none. One word has close front vowels (including a diphthong!) and the other has a single open back vowel. The only thing they have in common is the /ɹ/, but even that has a slightly different character when in a cluster with /t/. There's absolutely no way this was an accident of phonetics.
- FirmwareBurner 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - tmpz22 2y ago
    Is it not equally plausible that the data included social media content or other user input that interchanged trump and racism? Are we certain it was a manual weight that caused this? When did it become hip to cheer for people being fired? People we’ve never met, whose performance may never have even factored into the equation?
    - pavlov 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - nh23423fefe 2y ago
        the "everything is political" crowd elevates the discussion again
        FirmwareBurner 2y ago
        They just can't let it go
    - 2y ago
lucasyvas 2y ago
Seems to be working well to me.
- draw_down 2y ago
  [dead]
hermannj314 2y ago
I can imagine a vector embedding where those two words have a large dot product.
- ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
  Hahaha. This is the funniest thing I read this morning. Well, now we expect to see Tim Cook donating another 500 million or something to appease the dictator.
  - Thorrez 2y ago
    At Trump's inauguration, Tim Cook was pretty much the most prominently visible person. Right on the isle, right in the center of the camera for much of it.
- cayleyh 2y ago
  This is 100% what is happening :D I use Apple dictation a lot, and it frequently goes back and changes previous words that it's "heard" wrong after you give it more context.
yardie 2y ago
Apple's AI is probably learning you can be racist but you just can't state it.
TruffleLabs 2y ago
And why was this flagged? It is real news about technology.
- beretguy 2y ago
  I've heard there is auto-flag present when there are a lot of arguments happening in comments. Edit: see here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43170850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43170850 Dang said there is "flame war detector" that flags posts.
  - thunky 2y ago
    I don't see a lot of arguments happening here.
    - ta988 2y ago
      A lot of the stories talking about current administration gets flagged rapidly even those purely technical.
  - Jtsummers 2y ago
    The flame war detector doesn't flag the post (users do), but it does downrank them. You can see it in "hot" discussions. Say they go from 20 to 100 comments in minutes, mostly with deeply nested chats consisting of 2-3 people in a back and forth. The submission will fall off the front page quickly, but not be marked flagged unless users flagged it.
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43177857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43177857
DeepSeaTortoise 2y ago
"The best way to stop racism is to stop talking about it." Glad Apple agrees with Morgan Freeman. It also promotes friendly dialog between the political camps: "Deport all illegal aliens." - "You Trump!" - "Thank you!" - "Who will pick our avocados?" - "Former federal DEI hires." - "That's extremely Trump!" - "I know, I love this guy, too!"

53 points by ksec 2y ago

ksec 2y ago

https://archive.is/cxVd1 https://archive.is/cxVd1

Also - 23 points and 4 comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43183435 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43183435

mdhb 2y ago

[flagged]

skc 2y ago
I saw this headline and assumed it was a hoax of some sort
- api 2y ago
  Satire is dead.
  - InDubioProRubio 2y ago
    Little faun, satyr dad so proud

voidfunc 2y ago

Someone getting fired...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

lolinder 2y ago

> An Apple spokeswoman blamed the issue on phonetic overlap between the two words, and said the company was working on a fix. I don't envy the spokeswoman her job, but this is hilariously off base from a linguistics perspective: * /tɹʌmp/ * /ˈɹeɪ.sɪst/ One word is two syllables, the other is one. One word has a bunch of sibilance and the other has none. One word has close front vowels (including a diphthong!) and the other has a single open back vowel. The only thing they have in common is the /ɹ/, but even that has a slightly different character when in a cluster with /t/. There's absolutely no way this was an accident of phonetics.

FirmwareBurner 2y ago
[flagged]
- tmpz22 2y ago
  Is it not equally plausible that the data included social media content or other user input that interchanged trump and racism? Are we certain it was a manual weight that caused this? When did it become hip to cheer for people being fired? People we’ve never met, whose performance may never have even factored into the equation?
  - pavlov 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - nh23423fefe 2y ago
      the "everything is political" crowd elevates the discussion again
      - FirmwareBurner 2y ago
        They just can't let it go
  - 2y ago

lucasyvas 2y ago

Seems to be working well to me.

draw_down 2y ago
[dead]

hermannj314 2y ago

I can imagine a vector embedding where those two words have a large dot product.

ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
Hahaha. This is the funniest thing I read this morning. Well, now we expect to see Tim Cook donating another 500 million or something to appease the dictator.
- Thorrez 2y ago
  At Trump's inauguration, Tim Cook was pretty much the most prominently visible person. Right on the isle, right in the center of the camera for much of it.
cayleyh 2y ago
This is 100% what is happening :D I use Apple dictation a lot, and it frequently goes back and changes previous words that it's "heard" wrong after you give it more context.

yardie 2y ago

Apple's AI is probably learning you can be racist but you just can't state it.

TruffleLabs 2y ago

And why was this flagged? It is real news about technology.

beretguy 2y ago
I've heard there is auto-flag present when there are a lot of arguments happening in comments. Edit: see here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43170850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43170850 Dang said there is "flame war detector" that flags posts.
- thunky 2y ago
  I don't see a lot of arguments happening here.
  - ta988 2y ago
    A lot of the stories talking about current administration gets flagged rapidly even those purely technical.
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  The flame war detector doesn't flag the post (users do), but it does downrank them. You can see it in "hot" discussions. Say they go from 20 to 100 comments in minutes, mostly with deeply nested chats consisting of 2-3 people in a back and forth. The submission will fall off the front page quickly, but not be marked flagged unless users flagged it.

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43177857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43177857

DeepSeaTortoise 2y ago

"The best way to stop racism is to stop talking about it." Glad Apple agrees with Morgan Freeman. It also promotes friendly dialog between the political camps: "Deport all illegal aliens." - "You Trump!" - "Thank you!" - "Who will pick our avocados?" - "Former federal DEI hires." - "That's extremely Trump!" - "I know, I love this guy, too!"