Marcus Erikson|'What the duck' no more: Apple will stop autocorrecting your favorite swear word

2025-04-30 11:26:05source:Lakshmi Finance Centercategory:Finance

Any iPhone user with their autocorrect function turned on Marcus Eriksonknows that a certain four-letter expletive will be replaced immediately by the rhyming name of a species of waterfowl — but not for much longer.

Apple's upcoming iOS 17 iPhone software will stop autocorrecting swear words, thanks to new machine learning technology, the company announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.

"In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering.

Autocorrect substitutions have historically been a source of frustration as well as entertainment for many, spawning popular "damn you, autocorrect" social media accounts, internet memes and at least one song.

And, as many (but not all) tired typists agree, it's "about ducking time" for an update.

The upgraded system is powered by a transformer language model, which Apple calls "a state-of-the-art on-device machine learning language model for word prediction."

This AI model more accurately predicts which words and phrases you might type next, TechCrunch explains. That allows it to learn a person's most-used phrases, habits and preferences over time, affecting which words it corrects and which it leaves alone.

The updatealso aims to make autocorrect better at fixing grammatical mistakes and predicting words or phrases as users type, as well as making dictation more accurate, Apple says.

The new autocorrect will "improve the experience every time you type," Federighi said.

And it's just one of many new features of iOS 17, which is set to be released this fall. Others include real-time voicemail transcriptions, the ability to leave messages and reactions on FaceTime, a new Journal app and improved sharing capabilities with AirDrop, AirPlay and AirTag.

Apple is also announcing a slew of new products, including laptop and desktop computers and the Vision Pro, a virtual reality headset that will retail for $3,499 and be available for purchase starting in early 2024.

More:Finance

Recommend

Why did Bill Belichick go to North Carolina? New UNC coach explains jump to college

Bill Belichick has officially made the shocking move to college football by becoming the North Carol

List of NFL players suspended for violating gambling policies

The NFL has been suspending players for gambling violations since the 1963 season. Paul Hornung and

Fed Chair Jerome Powell warns the fight against inflation is far from over

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday inflation is still too high, and he warned that r