MIT Technology Review is reporting that the U.S. government wants to spend $30.3 million over the next five years on an improved form of lie detector, according to a Department of Defense budget request. It said the program, called "Polygraph+" or "Polygraph Next," will focus on scoring algorithms that use artificial intelligence and machine learning and on a technique called "standoff sensing," which refers to the ability to take physiological readings from a subject without attaching a device to their person.
According to details of the budget document, which were first reported by Inside Defense, the project will "modernize federal polygraph and credibility assessment technologies" to improve their accuracy and reliability. MIT Technology Review said the project may be just the latest in a long line of failed attempts to use technology to detect lies.
The outlet said the move comes at a time of high tension within the Department of Defense. Under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon has been increasingly turning to polygraph tests in an attempt to find the sources of alleged leaks to the press. In September, the New York Times reported that around 50 officers on the Joint Staff had been given polygraph tests after news coverage reported on depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles in the war with Iran.
MIT Technology Review said Polygraph+ will be run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, which conducts background checks for the federal government. According to the budget document, which has not yet been approved by Congress, the new technology will be used for vetting prospective employees and "insider threat detection." It said it is not yet clear which specific technologies will be used, and the agency did not respond to a request for more information.
The outlet said current polygraph technology has barely changed since the device was invented in the 1920s, relying on blood pressure, pulse, breathing and sweat measurements. It said the federal government conducts tens of thousands of the tests a year while screening employees, but the polygraph has been repeatedly debunked and its results are rarely admissible in court.
MIT Technology Review said experts it interviewed were skeptical. Kyri Kotsoglou, a professor at Northumbria Law School in the UK, called it "a misguided effort to reduce the complex to something that is tangible." Sophie van der Zee, an associate professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, said "if you know how it works, you can beat it," and that there is "still no Pinocchio's nose." Marion Oswald, a professor of law, said she fears new forms of lie detection will be used more as a psychological prop than a scientific tool, describing it as "a response to the concern of the current administration to leaks and perceived lack of loyalty."
Full Article: The Pentagon wants $30 million to build an AI-powered lie detector