Communication among humans relies on conversational grounding, allowing interlocutors to reach mutual understanding even when they do not have perfect knowledge and must resolve discrepancies in each other's beliefs. This paper investigates how large language models (LLMs) manage common ground in cases where they (don't) possess knowledge, focusing on facts in the political domain where the risk of misinformation and grounding failure is high. We examine the ability of LLMs to answer direct knowledge questions and loaded questions that presuppose misinformation. We evaluate whether loaded questions lead LLMs to engage in active grounding and correct false user beliefs, in connection to their level of knowledge and their political bias. Our findings highlight significant challenges in LLMs' ability to engage in grounding and reject false user beliefs, raising concerns about their role in mitigating misinformation in political discourse.

German security and biometrics firm Secunet will equip Zurich Airport in Switzerland with its technologies to make the facility compliant with the European Entry/Exit System (EES). The company made the announcement in a blog post, saying the project is based on a 2021 framework agreement between Secunet and the Zurich Cantonal Police. According to Georg Hasse, head of International Sales within the Homeland Security Division at Secunet, the contract is worth over CHF43 million (roughly US$44.75 million) and will run for more than 12 years. The EES scheme will require third-country nationals to register with a facial image and four fingerprints to cross land, sea, and air borders in the Schengen area. The system is designed to increase security and help coordinate international efforts in verifying individuals' identities when traveling.

A new machine learning approach to COVID-19 testing has produced encouraging results in Greece. The technology, named Eva, dynamically used recent testing results collected at the Greek border to detect and limit the importation of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases among arriving international passengers between August and November 2020, which helped contain the number of cases and deaths in the country. The findings of the project are explained in a paper titled "Deploying an Artificial Intelligence System for COVID-19 Testing at the Greek Border," authored by Hamsa Bastani, a Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions and affiliated faculty at Analytics at Wharton; Kimon Drakopoulos and Vishal Gupta from the University of Southern California; Jon Vlachogiannis from investment advisory firm Agent Risk; Christos Hadjicristodoulou from the University of Thessaly; and Pagona Lagiou, Gkikas Magiorkinis, Dimitrios Paraskevis and Sotirios Tsiodras from the University of Athens. The analysis showed that Eva on average identified 1.85 times more asymptomatic, infected travelers than what conventional, random surveillance testing would have achieved. During the peak travel season of August and September, the detection of infection rates was up to two to four times higher than random testing.

AI has opened doors to many transformation opportunities and increasingly minimised many risks -- personal and economic -- that are alarming today. And illicit trade is one of those pains AI can offer a promising solution against. Illicit trade is a serious threat and problem that affects governments and societies on every level. While governments lose financial funds in tax revenues, thriving businesses are losing potential customers, and customers are getting tricked into purchasing counterfeit, low-quality products. Transnational organized crime generates revenue of $2.2 trillion through transnational criminal organizations, complicit corrupt facilitators, and other threat areas.

Terrorism, immigration and Brexit dominates today's headlines. The question of how to police Britain's borders is both politically charged and a matter of day-to-day concern for the Home Office, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and related departments. International cargo and traveller volumes are growing at an unprecedented rate. At the same time, international air freight is also experiencing annual double-digit growth. While most of this traffic is legitimate and not a threat to public safety or state, border protection agencies and officers are under pressure to make accurate risk assessment judgements.