UK Home Office Uses AI for Asylum Seeker Age Estimates

TL;DR. The UK Home Office will use an AI age estimation tool at its borders starting next year to identify adult migrants claiming to be children. - A software company received a contract to develop and test the technology, analyzing photographs for age estimates. - Human Rights Watch criticized the scheme, calling it an unproven technology that could undermine child protections. - The contract for Akhter Computers Ltd will further test and deploy the system by mid-2027.

• The UK Home Office will deploy an AI age estimation tool at its borders from next year to detect adults posing as children.
• Akhter Computers Ltd has been awarded a contract worth £322,000 to develop and test this technology over three years.
• The AI will estimate age by analyzing photographs of asylum seekers taken at the border.
• Human Rights Watch has urged the government to abandon the scheme, citing concerns about its accuracy and potential impact on vulnerable children's rights.
• This initiative follows a significant number of age assessments where migrants initially claiming to be children were later found to be adults.

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