Yanny or Laurel? A robot's mysterious word is tearing the internet apart

The internet has brought us the next thing to fight over, and it doesn't involve debating the color of a dress. 

Now Playing: Watch this: Yanny or Laurel? Both are right!

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Instead, people on Twitter and Reddit are arguing over whether an audio recording is saying "Yanny" or "Laurel."

A user on Reddit shared the clip a few days ago, and people on the internet have been arguing over what they hear. 

Apparently, playing with the bass levels can help you hear both pronunciations. But even after listening to this, all I'm able to hear is "Yanny." 

Editor's note: Abrar is 100 percent wrong. It's totally "Laurel." Editor's note (from a different editor): Abrar is 100 percent right. It's totally "Yanny." 

A YouTube video also plays with pitches to try to understand how people are hearing different things. (I was finally able to hear "Laurel" here.)

Here's another that lets you hear both:

Cloe Feldman, the woman who posted the viral "Yanny" versus "Laurel" tweet, said in a YouTube video that she doesn't know who the creator of the clip is. But according to Wired (paywall), the origin traces back to -- of all things -- an opera singer hired by Vocabulary.com.  

People are fairly split over what the audio is saying, but team "Laurel" is in the lead, according to social media analytics firm Talkwalker. In fact, 53.9 percent of people hear "Laurel," while 46.1 percent hear "Yanny." And it's clearly been quite a hot topic, given there have been 746,500 mentions of "Yanny" versus "Laurel" measured over the last 24 hours, the firm said.

A US map based on geotagged Twitter data from the past week shows that Laurel totally dominates. According to the data, which was gathered by Sports Betting, only five states are predominantly hearing "Yanny."

And if you're still scratching your head trying to figure out how anyone could hear anything other than "Yanny" -- or "Laurel" -- there's now a tool that can help you hear both.

Regardless of all the numbers, data and videos, it's inevitable that this'll continue to lead to plenty of heated debates. Let the yelling matches begin. Vote in the poll below and let us know what you hear!

First published May 15, 1:23 p.m. PT
Update, May 15, 7 p.m. PT: Here's what science has to say about this phenomenon.
Update, May 16 at 12:21 p.m.: Adds data on who hears "Laurel" versus "Yanny," and information on the clip's origin. 
Update, May 17 at 1:13 p.m.: Adds map of where people are hearing "Laurel" versus "Yanny," and information on a tool for hearing both words.