The truth is on the line
A voice analysis system is heralded as the answer to millions lost through fraud - yet two academics claim it is about as valid as astrologyIt may seem contrary - even churlish - to doubt a technology claimed to have prevented millions of pounds of fraudulent insurance and benefit claims around the world. Yet that's what Francisco Lacerda, a professor of linguistics at Stockholm University, and Anders Eriksson, professor of phonetics at Gothenburg University, have done in a scientific paper.They say the system, used to try to detect people lying in phone calls made to 25 UK councils and a number of car insurers, is no more reliable than flipping a coin - and that millions of pounds have been spent on a technology that has not been validated scientifically, and for which the claims about its function are "at the astrology end of the validity spectrum".The claims publicly made...
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