Apple’s new machine learning technology will no longer autocorrect swear words, such as the expletive that has been mistakenly replaced with ‘ducking,’ much to users’ frustration.
During the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said, “In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too.”
Autocorrect previously required machine learning. However, a new software update will use a “state-of-the-art” transformer language model, according to Federighi.
The keyboard in iOS 17, the new operating system for the iPhone set to be released in September, will learn users’ habits and preferences, determining when to correct certain words and when to ignore others.
In addition, Federighi noted that the update would enhance autocorrect’s ability to correct grammatical errors and offer predictions for phrases and words. Using the space bar, users can fill these phrase and word predictions.
Federighi also mentioned that users can revert back to the original version of a word that was autocorrected by tapping it, which is another new feature.
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