Helix is developing on-device voice checks to distinguish people from bots for online services, while testing age estimates and possible voice signs of distress or intoxication.
Helix says its software can assess whether a voice comes from a person and provide an age estimate.
Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus said voice identification had reached a reliability level that could support wider adoption. He also said making Helix’s models smaller could help reduce costs.
The company says the software runs on supported devices, including the iPhone 13. Helix presents it as an option to use alongside CAPTCHA checks or instead of them to deter automated attacks. Zeel uses the tool in checks for its home-visiting providers, Helix says.
The startup is also running pilots to see whether voice patterns may point to signs of distress or intoxication.
CEO Alex Oberg has argued that voice checks could give social platforms another way to respond to age-verification rules. He says those requirements can push users to trade privacy for access, and has described Helix’s test as lasting four seconds.
Oberg said the system can check whether separate voices come from unique human speakers without identifying who they are.
Oberg said the system cannot reliably tell whether someone is lying. Helix also considers it too unreliable at present to detect AI agents during live calls.
Helix launched in 2025 with Oberg, Anna Dorofiyenko and Mike Hall. Before Helix, Oberg worked at Ticketmaster, which later bought a startup he had built. Dorofiyenko managed data science teams at Live Nation and Zillow. Hall worked at Nike and Tinder and contributed to Tinder’s original matching algorithm.
