Authorities will use artificial intelligence to help estimate the age of asylum seekers who say they are children.
Immigration Minister Angela Eagle said Tuesday that the government will test the technology to determine a person's age based on facial features.
This is the latest example to help the Minister of Labor turn his eyes to AI and solve public service problems without spending a significant amount of money.
The decision came on the same day that David Bolt, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, issued a highly critical report in a random way that estimated the age of new arrivals.
In a written statement to Congress, Eagle said: “We concluded that the most cost-effective option to pursue is likely to be an age estimate of facials. This allows AI technology to generate age estimates with known accuracy for individuals whose age is unknown or contested, as they are trained with millions of images where an individual's age is verifiable.
“In situations where it is not clear whether the person involved in the age assessment process is over 18 years old or not accepting whether the individual is claiming that the individual is claiming, facial age estimation provides a potentially quick and simple way to test judgments against the estimates generated by the technology.”
Eagle is commissioning a pilot scheme to test the technology with the aim of integrating it into official age verification checks within next year.
John Lewis announced earlier this year that he will be the first major UK retailer to use facial age estimates to help approve online knife sales.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has already used AI in other areas, such as helping to detect fake marriages. However, the tool has been criticized for disproportionately flagging certain nationalities.
Despite concerns about AI tools that exacerbate bias in government decision-making, the minister is investigating other potential uses. Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle announced his contract with Openai, the company that runs ChatGpt on Monday, exploring the deployment of AI in areas such as justice, safety and education.
Bolt said the mental health of young asylum seekers was suffering from the failure of the age verification system, particularly in Dover, where arrivals of small boats are handled.
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“Many of the policy and practice concerns raised over more than a decade remain unanswered,” Bolt warned, noting that the difficult situation at a processing facility in Dover could make accurate estimates of age.
He added: “I've heard stories of young people who felt distrust and fired in their home offices where hope has been crushed and their mental health is struggling.”
His findings reflect a report from the Refugee Council, finding that at least 1,300 children were deemed to be mistaken as adults for 18 months.
Last month, researchers from the London School of Economics and the University of Bedfordshire recommended that the Home Office be stripped of their authority to make decisions related to lonely asylum seekers.
