The Walls Have Eyes

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it was training “robot dogs” to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border against migrants. Four-legged machines equipped with cameras and sensors would join a network of drones and automated surveillance towers—nicknamed the “smart wall.” This is part of a worldwide trend: as more people are displaced by war, economic instability, and a warming planet, more countries are turning to AI-driven technology to “manage” the influx.

Based on years of researching borderlands across the world, lawyer and anthropologist Petra Molnar’s The Walls Have Eyes (The New Press, 2024) is a truly global story—a dystopian vision turned reality, where your body is your passport and matters of life and death are determined by algorithm.

Examining how technology is being deployed by governments on the world’s most vulnerable with little regulation, Petra Molnar also shows us how borders are now big business, with defense contractors and tech start-ups alike scrambling to capture this highly profitable market. 

About the Speaker

Petra Molnar is a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in migration and human rights. She is the Associate Director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University and Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Al Jazeera, Time Magazine, and others. Her first book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence came out in spring 2024 with The New Press.