No More ‘Ducking’ Errors: iOS 17 Revamps iPhone Autocorrect With Machine Learning Model

After what feels like an eternity, Apple is taking a step forward in the world of autocorrect technology, addressing an infamous grievance that has become something of a punchline among iPhone users.

With the forthcoming release of iOS 17, Apple has implemented an advanced Machine Learning model to revamp the autocorrect feature on its devices, aiming to make ‘ducking’ errors a thing of the past.

AI Autocorrect: From Ducking Errors to Understanding Intent with iOS17

Apple’s autocorrect feature, for all its conveniences, has also been a notorious source of frustration and amusement among users due to its prudish tendency to replace certain expletives with words like ‘ducking’.

However, the tech giant’s senior VP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, announced at this year’s WWDC that this will soon change.

The new iOS will not only understand your intent more accurately but also adapt to your personal writing style over time, promising a far more personalised and efficient typing experience.

Apple’s use of a transformer learning model in iOS 17 significantly enhances the autocorrect feature, the model is capable of understanding entire sentences and their context, thereby correcting mistakes in a way that matches your intent.

This comes as interest in AI-powered writing tools surges in 2023.

It’s designed to learn from your typing habits, improving its ability to predict your next word and provide more accurate autofill suggestions.

In a welcome departure from the past, users will also have the ability to revert autocorrected words by simply tapping on them.

The move by Apple arrives on the heels of Google’s recent addition of an autocorrect feature to its URL search bar in the Chrome browser, as tech giants increasingly focus on user experience in 2023.

Indeed, tensions have been heating up between iOS and Android, as iOS market share has seen a slight decline in recent quarters.

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This feature helps users by detecting typographical errors in URLs and suggesting the correct website, improving user experience and making browsing the internet a smoother process, particularly for people with dyslexia and language learners.

Machine Learning Enhanced Dictation, Privacy, and More on iOS 17

Apple’s new autocorrect is not the only exciting development for iOS users.

Dictation is also being upgraded with the transformer model to boost speech recognition capabilities, moreover, all autocorrection, prediction, and speech recognition tasks will be performed on-device, ensuring data privacy.

Yes! Finally!!! 🙌 😆 #Apple #iOS17 #WWDC23 #Autocorrect pic.twitter.com/5cFruRQxZB

— Rai Martinez, Jr. (@RaiMahTeenez) June 5, 2023

For eager users who can’t wait for the official iOS 17 release, a developer-grade beta version of iOS 17 is now available for free.

However, please bear in mind that installing a pre-release OS, especially on a primary device, does come with its own set of risks.

The non-developer public beta for iOS 17 is set to begin next month, and waiting until then is generally advised to avoid potential bugs.

Apple’s revamp of the autocorrect feature represents an important stride in enhancing user experience.

As the world continues to pivot towards more personalised and intelligent tech, it is, indeed, about ‘ducking’ time.

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