All posts tagged: polygraph

A Polygraph in Your Pocket

A Polygraph in Your Pocket

Published by skeptic

Updated at 2:15 p.m. ET on July 29, 2024 Journalists have a saying about the importance of confirming even the most basic facts: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Recently, I decided to follow that advice literally, with the help of an AI-based lie detector. The tool is called Coyote. Trained on a data set of transcripts in which people were established as having lied or told the truth, the machine-learning model then tells you whether a statement is deceptive. According to its creators, its textual analysis is accurate 80 percent of the time. A few weeks ago, I called my mom. After some initial questioning to establish ground truth—how she spent her vacation in France, what she did that morning—I got to the point. “Do you love me?” I asked. She said yes. I asked why. She listed a handful of positive qualities, the kinds of things a son would be proud to hear—if they were true. Later, I plugged a transcript of her answer into Coyote. The verdict: “Deception …

Some Physicians Are Being Forced to Pass Polygraph Tests

Some Physicians Are Being Forced to Pass Polygraph Tests

Published by skeptic

I am a former associate director in a state physician health program (PHP). I also hold faculty appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School in medical ethics and psychiatry. There is a little-known nether realm inhabited by a subset of doctors who have or are suspected of having substance use disorders. These physicians often are referred to state PHPs which, because they’re generally considered voluntary in nature, have little to no oversight. PHPs very frequently refer the physicians who come through their doors to evaluation and treatment centers with which they have financial ties, which often result in extended stays that cost doctors tens of thousands of dollars if they hope to continue practicing medicine. I’ve written about these issues for over a decade, but only recently have I heard that some of the evaluations that physicians are compelled to undergo utilize polygraph tests. One of these evaluation centers charges physicians $400 per polygraph, and if a physician doesn’t pass on the first or second try, they can keep paying $400 per …