Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being deployed along the United States border with Mexico, in the hope that the technology will help spot human traffickers, drug smugglers and migrants in distress in the gaps between Border Patrol stations.
Known as a “virtual wall” of surveillance, the new tech is being implemented with the hope that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers can spend more time in the field rather than sitting behind a desk.
One of the companies helping with the program is Airship AI, whose president Paul Allen told Newsweek that cameras and physical walls are not enough to tackle illegal crossings and crime along the 2,000-mile stretch.
“We’re using AI to be that first set of human eyes, it can watch hundreds or thousands of cameras and detect anomalies that an agent might have said is interesting to them,” Allen said.
“Whether that’s a group of people, or people carrying weapons or backpacks …