That’s the question as a short audio clip has sparked a
social media debate about whether the word is “
yanny” or “
laurel.” How one hears it is similar to how people viewed a dress on the Internet three years ago.
Some people speculated the age of the listener might determine what people heard, while others changed the pitch to alter results.
The answer, according to some, is that the robot is saying both. The recording is actually two voices on top of each other, saying both words. Your brain can’t hear both at once, so it picks between the two.
The voice that says “Laurel” is deeper than the one that says “Yanny.”
Younger people are generally better at hearing higher sounds, so they are more likely to hear “Yanny.”
As for the dress, some people said it was white and gold while others saw blue and black.