Roundtables: The Deadly Failures of The Virtual Border Wall

Watch a subscriber-only conversation examining the failures of border surveillance technology.

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 hundreds of 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 editor in chief Mat Honan for a conversation with senior AI reporter James O'Donnell and senior reporter for features and investigations Eileen Guo, examining the failures of border surveillance technology and uncovering the stories of the people who die in the borderlands.