Urging ministers to reverse plans to introduce facial age-estimation technology to screen migrants, critics have warned that black children arriving from conflict zones are at risk of being of thrust into the adult system. Harris said the introduction of AI was a “cheap process” that would not improve these numbers. In May, the government announced a contract to use facial age-estimation technology developed by Cognitec, a German firm that calls itself “the face-recognition company”. As part of our work to make this process more robust and consistent, we are exploring cutting-edge AI technology to verify migrants’ ages.” We know that malnutrition, dehydration, torture – even just the journey itself – has physical impacts on your face, on your body.