Apple has finally created new technology that will automatically censor swear words in songs.
The technology was patented way back in September of 2014, and is called “Management, Replacement and Removal of Explicit Lyrics During Audio Playback”. It can supposedly automatically scan songs and edit out any swear words in the lyrics, meaning that you can very seriously censor the entire content on your iPod or any other Apple device.
Apple says the technology has the potential to replace swear words with other words, delete them from tracks entirely, beep them out or fill the places where they would normally be with music.
Apple is also considering using its new censoring software for audiobooks, to edit out sex scenes as well as curse words. The system works by analysing songs or audio books, and comparing each word to a library of explicit terms in order to identify the naughty ones.
It may still be some time before this new software becomes available to the public, and it is certainly possible that it won’t ever make it to production. As Business Insider points out, Apple frequently patents a variety of different kinds of technology that don’t ever make it to production.
It’s unlikely that Apple will begin censoring music on iTunes or Apple Music but it is interesting to note that its free online radio station Beats 1 is already restricted to playing non-explicit versions of songs.
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