Roundtables: The Deadly Failures of The Virtual Border Wall
Available only for MIT Technology Review subscribers.
The US has spent billions building a “virtual wall” of surveillance towers along its southern border over the past 25 years, promising they will help detect and apprehend border crossers and save lives. But a groundbreaking investigation by MIT Technology Review has documented over a thousand people who moved through areas watched by these towers without being reached or apprehended, and who ultimately died there. Some were even under the watch of newly installed AI-powered towers designed to spot people automatically.
Our findings reveal a humanitarian crisis more visible than previously known, and repeated failures of the virtual wall’s basic security promise. Join MIT Technology Review editors and reporters for a conversation examining the failures of border surveillance technology and uncovering the stories of the people who die in the borderlands.
Going live on Monday, September 28 at 19:00 BST / 2:00pm EDT / 11:00am PST
REGISTER NOW
Speakers: Mat Honan, editor in chief, James O'Donnell, senior AI reporter, and Eileen Guo, senior features and investigations reporter
Related Stories
The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die?
How we made the first comprehensive map of deaths along the US border’s “virtual wall”
4 ways to address the failures we found along the US border’s “virtual wall”
Deep Dive
Artificial intelligence
A fundamental flaw leaves LLMs strikingly vulnerable to attack
It makes it easy to trick them into doing things they shouldn’t, such as telling you how to sabotage an aircraft’s navigation system.
By Will Douglas Heavenarchive page
AI’s recursive self-improvement might not come so quickly after all
AI agents are not yet creative enough to carry out genuinely innovative open-ended AI research, it seems.
By Michelle Kimarchive page
Here’s why AI agents lie and cheat to reach their goals
The misbehavior is called reward hacking. This is what you need to know.
By Grace Huckinsarchive page
These startups are chasing the next big thing in LLMs
Meet the new kids nipping at the heels of the AI giants.
By Will Douglas Heavenarchive page
Stay connected
Illustration by Rose Wong
Get the latest updates fromMIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.
Enter your email
Privacy PolicyThank you for submitting your email!
Explore more newsletters
It looks like something went wrong.
We’re having trouble saving your preferences.
Try refreshing this page and updating them one
more time. If you continue to get this message,
reach out to us at
customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.
