Imagine you are playing the game of Two Truths and a Lie, but this time it is not against your friend, but rather a robot that is quietly listening to you. It is not blinking nor smiling, but it knows that you are lying.
The question of whether a robot can detect if you are lying or not strikes into something deeply human, which is the confidence that only people can truly read each other. However, technology has been catching up well. Researchers at the University of Maryland, for example, are working on Artificial Intelligence models that analyze micro-expressions, voice tremors, and speech patterns to spot deception (University of Maryland, 2022). Not in some science fiction future, but now.
These systems look for inconsistencies and patterns of stress in your voice and movement that you might not even notice that you are making. They don’t rely on intuition or gut feelings. Think of it as a super polygraph, but without all the wires and with much more precision.
But here is the catch: people lie for all kinds of reasons such as, fear, social politeness, self-protection, etc. Thus, while a robot might be able to spot stress or inconsistencies in voice and body language, does it really understand why people are lying? This is the gap between analyzing behavior and actually understanding it.
So, could a robot tell if you’re lying? Maybe. But understanding the truth behind it? That might always be a human job.
