Apple will stop autocorrecting swear word to ‘ducking’

Apple will stop autocorrecting swear words, including the expletive that has often been replaced with ‘ducking’ much to the frustration of users, with new machine learning technology.

“In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.

Autocorrect has previously relied on machine learning, as well. However, Federighi said the keyboard will use a “state-of-the-art” transformer language model in a new software update.

In iOS 17, iPhone’s new operating system set to be released in September, the keyboard will learn users’ habits and preferences, including when to correct certain words and when to leave others alone. 

An additional feature will also allow users to tap a word that has been autocorrected and quickly revert back to the original version, Federighi said.

He added that the update also aims to improve autocorrect’s ability to fix grammatical errors and provide predictions for words and phrases in line as users type — which can be filled in by tapping the space bar.