Break the Suspect: a voice-first AI detective game in the browser

Break the Suspect is a detective game you play with your voice. You get the briefing, sit across from AI suspects who lie, sweat and slip, show the evidence, and close the case only with a full confession in the suspect's own words.

The idea

Crime-show fans know the rhythm: the tell, the evidence, the confession. We wanted to put players in the chair instead of on the couch, and to make it work in a phone browser in under a minute.

What we built

• Talk, don't tap. Hold the mic and ask out loud; suspects answer in their own voice. Typing works too.
• Tells and evidence. A hand to the face, a glance at the door. Lab results and street footage arrive through the night, and the right exhibit lands.
• A squad and a captain. Detectives slip you notes. The captain's rules keep pressure on: waste questions on the wrong person and he knocks on the door; push too hard and they lawyer up.
• A new case every few days.

An unexpected audience

English learners love it. Every case runs in English, and arguing with a suspect is speaking practice with a reason to keep talking. Each case includes free questions to practise with.

Decisions that mattered

No install. Safari or Chrome, allow the microphone, start talking: play Break the Suspect in your browser. An iPhone app is in testing.

Learning English? Read our guide to learning English by interrogating AI suspects, also in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese and Japanese.

Take tonight's case at breakthesuspect.com, the AI detective game.