The US 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. 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.
But the project may be just the latest in a long line of failed attempts to use technology to detect lies. 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 US weapons stockpiles in the war with Iran. Polygraph+ will be run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), 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 is not yet clear which specific technologies will be used, and the DCSA did not respond to a request for more information. But other efforts at the Department of Defense offer potential clues. In 2023, the agency’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) ran an open submission process to find companies with products that could be used for deception detection.
It selected two companies to build prototypes: Presage Technologies, which claims to be able to measure heart rate and breathing rate using standard cameras, and Altec Research, a medical sensor company now branching out into non-contact sensing technologies. A screenshot of Altec’s prototype technology released by the DIU shows that it tracks head movement, facial skin temperature, and pore activity. Presage Technologies and Altec Research did not respond to requests for comment.
The DIU declined to comment. Current polygraph technology has barely changed since the device was invented in the 1920s. Examiners rely on blood pressure, pulse, breathing, and sweat measurements to determine if someone is lying.
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