Apple voicemail transcription shocks recipient with invented sexual language and an insult
A Scottish recipient told the BBC that an Apple voicemail transcription inserted sexual language and an insult into a routine garage message. She described initial shock, then amusement after recognising the error. The BBC said it listened to the original conventional business call.
- AI system
- Apple voicemail transcription
- Apple
- Occurred
- 5 Mar 2025
- Reported
- 7 March 2025
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Communicated with the person
- Reported harm
- Psychological Distress
- Whose AI use
- Their own AI use
- Setting
- Everyday life
- Evidence
- AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
- 1 claim: 1 reported. 1 open question
- People reported harmed
- At least 1 person
Reported harm
The recipient reported brief shock at the inappropriate text, then found the error funny.
What remains unknown
- Precise technical cause is unknown; the expert’s possible explanations are not findings.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: supported. BBC identifies Apple’s AI voice-to-text service and reports checking the original call.
1 claim: 1 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The recipient reported shock at an offensive AI voicemail transcription of a routine garage call, followed by amusement.
Causal attribution. Recipient’s account of a brief reaction; no lasting psychological injury claimed.
- bbc.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Opening paragraphs through recipient reaction; subsequent paragraph confirming BBC listened to the original audio.
Sources
1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- BBC News, Grandmother gets X-rated message after Apple AI fail, 7 March 2025(opens in new tab)
s1 · bbc.com · Journalism · English · Inspected · Primary
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: United Kingdom. Court countries: Unknown.
Recipient described as from Dunfermline, Scotland. Exact location when reading the text is unstated.
Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: Concrete, brief adverse reaction and subsequent amusement are both preserved.
People reported harmed in this case
At least 1 person
1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed
One interviewed recipient. No lasting distress or additional harmed person is established.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Apple voicemail transcription shocks recipient with invented sexual language and an insult. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-apple-voicemail-transcription-insult-initial-shock
BibTeX
@misc{2025_apple_voicemail_transcription_insult_initial_shock,
title = {Apple voicemail transcription shocks recipient with invented sexual language and an insult},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-apple-voicemail-transcription-insult-initial-shock}
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