Discussion

• @joannastern Joanna Stern on x

  “It's all my ducking fault.” - @kocienda, the creator of the iPhone's autocorrect system, to a real duck. Yes, I facilitated this long-awaited apology in my latest video: https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @joannastern Joanna Stern on x

  I was duckin fed up with autocorrect on my iPhone. So I said “duck it!” and tracked down current and former Apple employees, including @kocienda to find out how it all works. My duckin' column and video with real ducks. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @kocienda Ken Kocienda on x

  Autocorrect is as much psychology as technology. When I made the autocorrect system for the original iPhone, I thought a lot about whether people would understand the results they got. Even if people didn't get want they want, I still wanted the results to seem sensible. https://…

• @kyleve @kyleve on x

  iPhone has decided that the word “can” no longer exists; and now autocorrects it to “can't” with no warning, about 80% of the time. Helpful! How does this happen

• @kocienda Ken Kocienda on x

  Recently, @JoannaStern contacted me to talk about autocorrect, the concepts I put into the first iPhone system, and how things have played out over the years since I moved onto other companies and projects. Here's our chat, in all its ducking glory. https://www.youtube.com/...

• @kocienda Ken Kocienda on x

  The original iPhone needed a practical software keyboard. My first autocorrect system filled that gap, and I'm proud of my work to make it happen. Autocorrect made it possible for people to type on a sheet of glass, but no, it didn't always get it right.

• @granteb Grant Burningham on x

  Interviewing the creator of iPhone's auto-correct while holding a duck is genius https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @jamesburland James Burland on x

  @kocienda You are to the smartphone what John Williams is to Star Wars. You should be extremely proud. Imagine if the first iPhone had a mediocre software keyboard? Things might have been very different for the iPhone and for Apple.

• @pmarca Marc Andreessen on x

  iPhone just autocorrected “decaf coffee with cream” to “decaf coffee with crack”. Is it trying to tell me something?

• @lukemiani Luke Miani on x

  STUPID AUTOCORRECT WONT LET MW TYPE ‘Mac’

• @waltmossberg Walt Mossberg on x

  Yet another really good column and great video from @JoannaStern. It explains a lot, has an interview with the inventor of @Apple autocorrect, and is well worth a read. 💯👇 https://twitter.com/...

• @edzitron Ed Zitron on x

  Joanna rocks both for doing this story and in the truly wonderful way she did it https://twitter.com/...

• @stroughtonsmith Steve Troughton-Smith on x

  Apple really needs to throw out its crowdsourced machine-learned autocorrect system entirely. Autocorrect used learn from everything *I* typed, now it interjects with typos & weirdisms from random internet users. It's been a complete train wreck since they introduced this stuff h…

• @kocienda Ken Kocienda on x

  Building a trustworthy piece of software is as much about not doing the wrong thing as it is doing the right thing, and I think many developers don't quite understand how one weird result can undo the positive perceptions from fifty good results.

• @jamesrbuk James Ball on x

  Whoever at Apple set up the aggressive it's / its autocorrect: there is a special place in he'll for you.