Apple fixes its 'ducking' autocorrect problem

Girl looking down at iPhone.
(Image credit: xavierarnau/Getty Images.)

Our prayers have been answered.

Apple's upcoming iOS 17 iPhone software will include a new tweak that stops the phone's autocorrect function from changing a certain curse word (you know the one) to "ducking," the company announced this week at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

The change is made possible by "a state-of-the-art on-device machine learning language model for word prediction," Apple said, which will learn a user's most-used phrases and preferences and alter its corrections accordingly, per NPR.

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"In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too," said Craig Federighi, the company's senior vice president of software engineering. Automatic suggestions "will be based on the words and phrases you use most and it will also apply to voice dictation," added The Washington Post.

Apple also at WWDC unveiled its new $3,500 mixed reality headset and a 15-inch Macbook Air, among other innovations and products.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.