Pentagon seeks $30.3 million for AI lie detector "Polygraph+"

The Pentagon's request comes amid heightened internal tension. Under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the department has increasingly used polygraph tests to find sources of alleged leaks to the press, and in September the New York Times reported that around 50 officers on the Joint Staff were given polygraph tests. The new program would be run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), which handles background checks for the federal government. It is meant for vetting prospective employees and "insider threat detection," though the DCSA has not specified which technologies it would use.

The DoD has explored related technology before. In 2023, its Defense Innovation Unit selected Presage Technologies and Altec Research to build prototypes, including non-contact sensing that tracks head movement, facial skin temperature, and pore activity. But past efforts—from thermal cameras to brain scans—have not yielded reliable results outside the lab. Experts say the fundamental problem is that there is no single telltale sign of lying, and that AI would add uncertainty on top of an already invalid method. The 2003 National Research Council report found polygraph evidence "weak at best," and a screening test with the American Polygraph Association's claimed 80–94% accuracy could still falsely accuse many of the DoD's 2.8 million staff.