An elderly Scottish woman, Louise Littlejohn, received an unexpectedly vulgar voicemail message due to a malfunction in Apple's AI-powered voice-to-text transcription service. The incident occurred when Littlejohn, 66, received a message from Lookers Land Rover garage in Motherwell, inviting her to an event scheduled for the 6th of March. The AI software mistakenly transcribed the word "sixth" as "sex" and included inappropriate remarks about her sex life.
The message did not stop at this grave error. It went on to refer to Littlejohn as a "piece of s–t," leaving her initially bewildered. Believing it to be a scam, she recognized the call's zip code and recalled purchasing a car from the garage, which led her to realize it was a legitimate message marred by AI error.
“Initially I was shocked — astonished — but then I thought that is so funny,” – Louise Littlejohn
This is not the first time Apple's voice-to-text software has encountered such mishaps. Previously, the service infamously transcribed the word "racist" as "Trump." Experts have pointed out significant glitches within the technology, raising concerns about its reliability.
Some experts attribute this error to the challenges posed by the Scottish accent. However, Peter Bell, a professor of speech technology at the University of Edinburgh, suggests that background noise and the caller's script-reading were more likely to blame. Bell emphasizes that these factors can significantly degrade the system's performance.
“Background noise and reading from a script can contribute to the system doing badly,” – Peter Bell
“The bigger question is why it outputs that kind of content,” – Peter Bell
“If you are producing a speech-to-text system that is being used by the public, you would think you would have safeguards for that kind of thing.” – Peter Bell
The incident has attracted media attention, with reports by both the BBC and the Daily Mail highlighting the technological blunder. It serves as a stark reminder of the potential pitfalls of relying on AI for everyday tasks such as voicemail transcription.
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