Jerusalem Flag autoprediction bug is fixed in iOS 17.5 developer beta

AppleInsider

Apple's second iOS 17.5 developer beta has fixed a bug that showed the Palestinian flag in the predictive text system when users typed in "Jerusalem."

An example of the Jerusalem flag bug in iMessage for iOS.

On April 10, complaints were made to social media that iOS 17.4.1 had a bug in the autocorrect system. For some iPhone users, typing Jerusalem on the standard keyboard in iMessage offered the Palestinian flag in the predictive text system.

At the same time, searching for Jerusalem in emoji search came up with the same result. However, the problem only existed for some users using specific languages, such as British English.

At the time, Apple confirmed it was aware of a bug in predictive emoji, and that it would be fixed in the next update.

AppleInsider confirmed the bug has been fixed in the second developer beta for iOS 17.5. Also, checking other cities in the system doesn't bring up any flags at all.

The existence of the bug, most likely due to Apple's analysis of texts from millions by its machine learning systems, led to social outcry and claims of antisemitism, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.




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ferdinandcc

Oh man, if ever there were an article that AppleInsider should lock down comments on for political reasons, its this one.

ilarynx

ferdinandcc said:

Oh man, if ever there were an article that AppleInsider should lock down comments on for political reasons, its this one.

The editorial team does a good job with such things. The previous article on the subject was open for comment and several people posted very informed and informative comments, noting the likely cause of the "bug" (more logical and far less nefarious than the hair-on-fire crowd crying "bias!"). 

sidrictheviking

It affects English with Ireland as the Region, too. Not something I would have ever expected, to be honest. I’ve noticed flag emojis offered with countries many times but never with any city. I tried dozens of capital cities just now but didn’t get any flag emojis (e.g. Dublin, London, Rome, Paris, Beijing, Canberra, Wellington, Amman, Ramallah, Cairo, Brasilia, Naypyidaw, Kyiv, Moscow, Port Moresby)

Curiouser and curiouser. 

😎🇮🇪☘️ 

mknelson

sidrictheviking said:

It affects English with Ireland as the Region, too. Not something I would have ever expected, to be honest. I’ve noticed flag emojis offered with countries many times but never with any city. I tried dozens of capital cities just now but didn’t get any flag emojis (e.g. Dublin, London, Rome, Paris, Beijing, Canberra, Wellington, Amman, Ramallah, Cairo, Brasilia, Naypyidaw, Kyiv, Moscow, Port Moresby)

Curiouser and curiouser. 

😎🇮🇪☘️ 

I don't know about "Curiouser and curiouser". Most people don't type a capital city and then a flag together. They usually consider it to be obvious to just say Dublin, or London, etc. as you list. Jerusalem is unique in my mind in being a city claimed by two cultures. The flag appearing in sentences enough to be picked up by predictive text is understandable.

That's especially true in places like Ireland (presumably also including Northern Ireland) where there is a great deal of sympathy for the cause of Palestinian independence.

ausername

I also get a little offended when the PRoChina flag 🇨🇳 pops up any time I write China 🇹🇼 I guess that's just American politics though, they are happy cast aside the principles of democracy and freedom to please dictatorships whenever they can gain a profit from them so most Americans are used to hearing the PRoC 🇨🇳 by the name "China" and just call China 🇹🇼 by the island name of Taiwan 🤷‍♂️

ausername

Wow, amazing! That flag emojis did not show up at all there it's just shown some random characters.

anilu_777

AUsername said:

I also get a little offended when the PRoChina flag 🇨🇳 pops up any time I write China 🇹🇼 I guess that's just American politics though, they are happy cast aside the principles of democracy and freedom to please dictatorships whenever they can gain a profit from them so most Americans are used to hearing the PRoC 🇨🇳 by the name "China" and just call China 🇹🇼 by the island name of Taiwan 🤷‍♂️

Canadian here. People living in the island we generally call “Taiwan” call the island China then? What do they call the mainland? “People’s Republic of China”? Genuine question @AUsername ;

dewme

ferdinandcc said:

Oh man, if ever there were an article that AppleInsider should lock down comments on for political reasons, it’s this one.

There are no politics involved here. This is simply a result of predictive analytics and algorithms that are driven by big data sampling with too little consideration for factors that may have skewed the raw data that’s driving the prediction algorithms. 

Unfortunately the aggregated raw data for some topics and associations is inherently biased by factors that are outside of the realm of the data collection and predictive logic and algorithms. This may be due to any number of reasons. 

In other words, this really falls into the “garbage in garbage out” category. I recall that just a few years ago if I typed the phrase “The doctor  …“ the next word predicted would be “he” or a male doctor emoji. Apple has obviously added compensation logic since then to consider ways the next word prediction may have been influenced by inherent or historical bias or skew in the raw data. 

appleexpat

These are the consequences people now face when our government is now pretty much run by AIPAC and Israel. They dictate and the puppets follow. Even Apple has to follow now. Had Steve Jobs been around none of this would have been allowed.

sbdude

dewme said:

ferdinandcc said:

Oh man, if ever there were an article that AppleInsider should lock down comments on for political reasons, it’s this one.

There are no politics involved here. This is simply a result of predictive analytics and algorithms that are driven by big data sampling with too little consideration for factors that may have skewed the raw data that’s driving the prediction algorithms. 

Unfortunately the aggregated raw data for some topics and associations is inherently biased by factors that are outside of the realm of the data collection and predictive logic and algorithms. This may be due to any number of reasons. 

In other words, this really falls into the “garbage in garbage out” category. I recall that just a few years ago if I typed the phrase “The doctor  …“ the next word predicted would be “he” or a male doctor emoji. Apple has obviously added compensation logic since then to consider ways the next word prediction may have been influenced by inherent or historical bias or skew in the raw data. 

A lovely thought, but probably naive. It's equally possible to be a algorithmic bug as it is a programmed response. This is the world we live in.

dewme

sbdude said:

dewme said:

ferdinandcc said:

Oh man, if ever there were an article that AppleInsider should lock down comments on for political reasons, it’s this one.

There are no politics involved here. This is simply a result of predictive analytics and algorithms that are driven by big data sampling with too little consideration for factors that may have skewed the raw data that’s driving the prediction algorithms. 

Unfortunately the aggregated raw data for some topics and associations is inherently biased by factors that are outside of the realm of the data collection and predictive logic and algorithms. This may be due to any number of reasons. 

In other words, this really falls into the “garbage in garbage out” category. I recall that just a few years ago if I typed the phrase “The doctor  …“ the next word predicted would be “he” or a male doctor emoji. Apple has obviously added compensation logic since then to consider ways the next word prediction may have been influenced by inherent or historical bias or skew in the raw data. 

A lovely thought, but probably naive. It's equally possible to be an algorithmic bug as it is a programmed response. This is the world we live in.

Obviously I disagree in part because I’ve worked on predictive algorithms and understand the dependencies that these algorithms have on the quality of the data. In fact, removing the sampling bias is in a way a post processing fix-up (compensation) to add a human based understanding to correct the unintentional bias in the prediction logic. 

In my opinion, politics is like religion and emotion in that none of these things blend well with logic. These are streams that should never be allowed to cross. The result is predictably less than desirable. 

Here’s an example: if you type into the iMessage text entry box “Husband and” followed by a space the prediction algorithm will give you the choices of “I”, “wife”, and “daughter”. Does this imply that Apple does not recognize same sex marriage? Do the same thing with “Wife and” space. Lo and behold, Apple predicts one of the following words “wife”. Does this mean Apple is okay with same sex marriage but only if both partners are female? If you apply emotion, politics, or religion to this result someone is going to get fired up about Apple’s implied position on the same sex marriage topic. Oh my. 

edited April 2024

ausername

Anilu_777 said:

AUsername said:

I also get a little offended when the PRoChina flag 🇨🇳 pops up any time I write China 🇹🇼 I guess that's just American politics though, they are happy cast aside the principles of democracy and freedom to please dictatorships whenever they can gain a profit from them so most Americans are used to hearing the PRoC 🇨🇳 by the name "China" and just call China 🇹🇼 by the island name of Taiwan 🤷‍♂️

Canadian here. People living in the island we generally call “Taiwan” call the island China then? What do they call the mainland? “People’s Republic of China”? Genuine question @AUsername ;

After essentially a civil war the mainland was occupied by a dictatorship that called itself The People’s Republic of China 🇨🇳 . By this point China 🇹🇼 as far as I’m aware have no real interest in recovering any land back from PRoC and as most of what they remain with is the island of Taiwan it is why they are often referred to by that name by others to please the PRoC 🇨🇳. However they have always been and are The Republic of China, or China 🇹🇼

On a side note, while I disagree with it, you and I share a head of state 🤴 and one day I would love to visit your wonderful part of the world 😁🇨🇦