The US Department of Defense has requested $30.3 million over five years for a program called Polygraph+ or Polygraph Next, according to a budget document first reported by Inside Defense. The program, to be run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, would use artificial intelligence and machine learning to modernize polygraph and credibility assessment, including "standoff sensing"—taking physiological readings without attaching sensors to a person. The stated purposes are vetting prospective employees and detecting insider threats.
The budget request follows a 2023 Defense Innovation Unit effort that selected Presage Technologies and Altec Research to build prototype deception detectors. Presage says its software can measure heart rate and breathing using standard cameras; Altec's prototype reportedly tracks head movement, facial skin temperature, and pore activity. The specific technologies planned for Polygraph+ are not yet clear, and the agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Experts quoted in the MIT Technology Review report are skeptical. Kyri Kotsoglou, a law professor at Northumbria University, calls it "a misguided effort to reduce the complex to something that is tangible," while deception researcher Sophie van der Zee says there is still no Pinocchio's nose—no single reliable sign of lying. She argues AI could help by combining measures of physiological stress, cognitive load, and concealment effort, but decades of attempts using thermal cameras, pupil trackers, and brain scans have failed outside the lab.