The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05
Description
This week, Alex and Emily talk with anthropologist and immigration lawyer Petra Molnar about the dehumanizing hype of border-enforcement tech. From hoovering up data to hunt anyone of ambiguous citizenship status, to running surveillance of physical borders themselves, "AI" tech is everywhere in the enforcement of national borders. And as companies ranging from Amazon, to NSO Group, to Palantir all profit, this widening of automation threatens a future of faceless human rights violations with no attempts at accountability of any kind.
Petra Molnar is associate director of York University's Refugee Law Lab, and a faculty associate for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She's also the author of the book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving immigration in the age of artificial intelligence.
References:
Department of Homeland Security: Robot Dogs Take Another Step Towards Deployment at the Border
Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People
Athens prepares to host DEFEA 2025, a major hub for international defence cooperation
Fresh AI Hell:
Meta served teen girls beauty product ads whenever they deleted selfies
Dating app/luxury surveillance leaks personal info
"AI" for subway crime prediction
CA used "AI" to make bar exam questions
CA using "AI" tool to bypass building permit process
Wildly unethical "AI persuasion" research on Reddit users
AI makeup to retouch Holocaust images
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Alex
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Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.
United States
