During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, the tech giant unveiled a significant upgrade to its iPhone autocorrect system, promising a smarter and more personalized experience for users. The announcement comes as part of the company’s plans for the new iOS 17.
The current autocorrect on iOS devices uses onboard machine learning to reference a library of frequently misspelled words, fixing users’ typos. While helpful, this system has been known to cause frustration by changing correctly spelled words to something unintended. Apple aims to rectify this issue with the AI-powered autocorrect in the upcoming iOS 17.
The upgraded keyboard will learn users’ habits over time, correcting frequently misspelled words while leaving intentionally typed words untouched. It will also utilize AI to more accurately predict the next word and provide improved autofill suggestions.
“In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software, during the presentation.
The new iOS will employ a transformer language model, similar to the technology powering ChatGPT, enabling it to fix entire sentences based on context. For example, it will automatically change “your” to “you’re” when the incorrect word is used in a completed sentence.
Another useful feature will allow users to revert to the originally typed word by tapping on the autocorrected change. Over time, the system will learn from users’ habits and become more accurate. Predictive text and dictation are also set to improve, with the spacebar offering word and sentence completion options, and the keyboard engine learning users’ voices.
Apple will leverage its in-house processor, also announced at the conference, to power the language model each time a user interacts with the keyboard. The revamped keyboard and autocorrect features are expected to be available in the upcoming iOS 17, which is set to launch later this year.
