In a recent study, Alicia von Schenk and her colleagues developed a tool that was significantly better than people at spotting lies. Von Schenk, an economist at the University of Würzburg in Germany, and her team then ran some experiments to find out how people used it. In some ways, the tool was helpful--the people who made use of it were better at spotting lies. But they also led people to make a lot more accusations. In their study published in the journal iScience, von Schenk and her colleagues asked volunteers to write statements about their weekend plans.

The U.K.'s privacy watchdog has warned against use of so-called "emotion analysis" technologies for anything more serious than kids' party games, saying there's a discrimination risk attached to applying "immature" biometric tech that makes pseudoscientific claims about being able to recognize people's emotions using AI to interpret biometric data inputs. Such AI systems'function', if we can use the word, by claiming to be able to'read the tea leaves' of one or more biometric signals, such as heart rate, eye movements, facial expression, skin moisture, gait tracking, vocal tone etc, and perform emotion detection or sentiment analysis to predict how the person is feeling -- presumably after being trained on a bunch of visual data of faces frowning, faces smiling etc (but you can immediately see the problem with trying to assign individual facial expressions to absolute emotional states -- because no two people, and often no two emotional states, are the same; hence hello pseudoscience!). The watchdog's deputy commissioner, Stephen Bonner, appears to agree that this high tech nonsense must be stopped -- saying today there's no evidence that such technologies do actually work as claimed (or that they will ever work). "Developments in the biometrics and emotion AI market are immature. They may not work yet, or indeed ever," he warned in a statement. "While there are opportunities present, the risks are currently greater.

The system, called iBorderCtrl, analyzed facial movements to attempt to spot signs a person was lying to a border agent. The trial was propelled by nearly $5 million in European Union research funding, and almost 20 years of research at Manchester Metropolitan University, in the UK. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. Polygraphs and other technologies built to detect lies from physical attributes have been widely declared unreliable by psychologists. Soon, errors were reported from iBorderCtrl, too.

The system, called iBorderCtrl, analyzed facial movements to attempt to spot signs a person was lying to a border agent. The trial was propelled by nearly $5 million in European Union research funding, and almost 20 years of at Manchester Metropolitan University, in the UK. Polygraphs and other technologies built to detect lies from physical attributes have been widely declared unreliable by psychologists. Soon, errors were reported from iBorderCtrl, too. Media reports indicated that its [lie-prediction algorithm didn't and the project's own website that the technology "may imply risks for fundamental human rights."

The system, called iBorderCtrl, analyzed facial movements to attempt to spot signs a person was lying to a border agent. The trial was propelled by nearly $5 million in European Union research funding, and almost 20 years of research at Manchester Metropolitan University, in the UK. Polygraphs and other technologies built to detect lies from physical attributes have been widely declared unreliable by psychologists. Soon, errors were reported from iBorderCtrl, too. Media reports indicated that its lie-prediction algorithm didn't work, and the project's own website acknowledged that the technology "may imply risks for fundamental human rights."

How good are you at lying? Could you fool a friend? We've recently learned that the EU plans to trial lie detectors equipped with artificial intelligence, or "deception detection", at border control to combat crime and terrorism. This got Jordan Erica Webber and Graihagh Jackson wondering about lying – how people learn to tell fibs, whether an AI machine can pick up subtle clues and cues, and if so, can we trust its judgment? In this special collaboration between the Guardian's Chips with Everything and Science Weekly podcasts, Webber and Jackson are joined by the social and forensic psychologist Dr Paul Seager, from the University of Central Lancashire, and a reader in computational intelligence, Dr Keeley Crockett from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Trials for AI lie detection at border patrol checkpoints are set to begin soon in the EU. The program, called iBorderCtrl, will run for six months at four border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia and Greece with countries outside the European Union, as reported by Gizmodo. The system has users fill out an online application and upload some documents, like their passport, before a virtual border guard takes over to ask questions. According to New Scientist, some of these questions include "What's in your suitcase?" If iBorderCtrl determines the traveler is telling the truth, then they receive a QR code that will let them pass the border.

A digital border guard will interrogate travellers at some European Union borders in an attempt to ramp up security at crossings. Dubbed iBorderCtrl, the agent features an AI lie detector that quizzes tourists on their trip, including the contents of their suitcase. The system is part of a six-month trial run by the Hungarian National Police at four different border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia, and Greece. If successful, the technology could be rolled out to borders across the union's member states. A digital border guard will interrogate travellers at some European Union borders in an attempt to ramp up security at crossings.

Try to fool an artificial intelligence lie detector, discover innovative fashion made using rare pictures of the Antarctic and find out why 7,000 socks will be hanging in Central Library, as the UK's Manchester Metropolitan University joins the Manchester Science Festival 2018. The festival, which is in its 12th year, is organised by the Science and Industry Museum – with Manchester Met showcasing some of its most exciting projects and researchers in locations across the city. RELATED: Smart cities need to be more human, so we're creating Sims-style virtual worlds Scientists from Manchester Metropolitan will reveal their cutting-edge research, answer any burning questions about how science and technology will shape our futures, and give you the opportunity to take part in live hands-on science experiments. Interest in and focus on smart cities has skyrocketed in 2018, with a very large number of vendors from across the value chain repositioning and optimizing their IoT portfolios to take advantage of this beckoning opportunity. Members of the public are invited to attempt to get past iBorderCtrl – a virtual border guard that uses artificial intelligence to work out whether people are lying about who they are and why they are travelling.