Yes, we're still talking about this, the disputed mystery audio clip that sounds like different things to different people. While there's no definitive answer to why some people hear different things in the Yanny or Laurel clip, the New York Times has posted a simple tool that lets you hear the original audio filtered in different ways.
Screenshot by Dan Ackerman/CNET
The tool, found here, takes the controversial clip and applies frequency filters to it, emphasising the lower frequencies on the Laurel end and the higher frequencies on the Yanny end, making it easier to hear both. The origin of the clip itself is a poor recording of a roboticized pronunciation guide for the word "laurel" from vocabulary.com.
There are overlapping scientific explanations for the phenomenon, including the hearing range of individuals, the poor quality of the original recording, and the frequency reproduction ranges of different types of speakers and headphones.
The debate even engulfed the CNET office with several of our team members weighing in for our local CBS station's evening news. You can see that clip above, which amazingly, sounded like "Yanny" to me while we were shooting it in the CNET Labs, but sounded like "Laurel" when I watched this segment on TV later that day,
Video of Trumps and White House officials uses meme to joke about lying to media
The White House has weighed into the “Laurel or Yanny” debate, with social media users saying the administration has now officially killed the meme.
In a video posted on Twitter, Donald Trump and various officials are asked whether they hear the word Laurel or Yanny in an audio “illusion”, which first appeared on Reddit, and has been the subject of intense debate this week.
Play Video 0:32 Yanny vs Laurel video: which name do you hear? – audio
The rare attempt at humour was criticised by social media users for making jokes about lying to the media and killing the fun.
The video begins with the US president’s daughter, Ivanka, and a senior adviser, who said the word was “so clearly Laurel”, before laughing to people out of shot.
Vice-president Mike Pence later appears looking bemused and asks: “Who’s Yanny?”
The press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and White House aide Kellyanne Conway both allude to their reputations for deception under media questioning.
Laurel or Yanny explained: why do some people hear a different word? Read more
Sanders is told by a voice off camera that there are reports she heard the word Laurel. She responds: “Clearly you’re getting your information from CNN because that’s fake news. All I hear is Yanny.”
Conway – who defended the former press secretary Sean Spicer when he was accused of lying by saying he was presenting “alternative facts” – says she heard Laurel. “But I could deflect and divert to Yanny if you need me to.”
Towards the end of the 45-second video, Trump appears with the punchline. Sitting at his desk in the Oval Office, he said: “I hear covfefe” in reference to the famous misspelling he published on Twitter last year.
Earlier, a tweet by the US Air Force linked the meme to the killing of Taliban militants in Afghanistan. The tweet was subsequently deleted and an apology issued.
“We apologise for the earlier tweet regarding the A-10. It was made in poor taste and we are addressing it internally. It has since been removed,” a statement said.
Military chiefs admit joke about whether the Taliban would like to hear Yanny, Laurel or the sound of US gunfire was in ‘poor taste’
The US Air Force has apologised and withdrawn a tweet that made light of killing Taliban militants in Afghanistan by invoking the viral “Laurel or Yanny” internet debate.
Laurel or Yanny explained: why do some people hear a different word? Read more
The tweet from the air force’s main Twitter account came after days of intense fighting in the Afghan city of Farah, which has served as a reminder of the perils facing US-backed Afghan forces even after 16 years of war. The US military has provided air support with A-10 attack aircraft and drones.
Its tweet said: “The Taliban forces in Farah city #Afghanistan would much rather have heard #Yanny or #Laurel than the deafening #BRRRT they got courtesy of our #A10.” The #BRRRT was meant to suggest the sound of Gatling gun fire.
A tweet from the US Air Force linking the conflict in Afghanistan with the ‘Yanny or Laurel’ internet debate. Photograph: US Air Force/Twitter
The tweet sought to link, somewhat awkwardly, the conflict to an internet debate over an audio file in which listeners can hear either the word “Laurel” or “Yanny”. The audio “illusion”, which first appeared on Reddit, seems to be saying one word – but whether that word is “Yanny” or “Laurel” is the source of furious disagreement.
The sound is an example of a “perceptually ambiguous stimulus” such as the Necker cube or the face/vase illusion, said Professor David Alais from the University of Sydney’s school of psychology.
U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) We apologize for the earlier tweet regarding the A-10. It was made in poor taste and we are addressing it internally. It has since been removed.
After questions at a Pentagon briefing about whether the tweet was appropriate, the air force deleted it and expressed regrets for the attempt at humour.
“We apologize for the earlier tweet regarding the A-10. It was made in poor taste and we are addressing it internally. It has since been removed,” it said.
Reuters contributed to this report
