Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is playing an increasingly important role in border security. With multiple forms of border-focused AI technologies, from evolutions in biometric analysis of fingerprints and facial recognition, to revolutions in algorithms designed to evaluate travelers’ almost imperceptible emotional expressions, AI can help authorities quickly identify suspicious individuals or activities at the borders. Such systems allow the authorities to discern high-risk and suspicious individuals likely to engage in dangerous activities.
Securiport AI border security technologies provide an unparalleled border security solution to governments seeking to secure their national borders. An essential component of safeguarding the national security of a country is ensuring that travelers are not a threat to the destination country. For instance, the Gambia–Senegal border is 749 km (465 mi) in length and runs on either side of the Gambia river. For both countries, it is crucial to have efficient and effective systems in place to manage their land and air borders to control the sovereignty of their territories. Globally, it is the responsibility of the Governments to procure security technologies and implement measures with the latest technologies.
AI and Data used for border security.
To ensure the national security of a country, AI technology can be used by border security agents to verify the identity of individuals and conduct individualized risk assessments. These assessments analyze data collected in a variety of ways, from traditional sources including travel records, identity documentation, and government databases; but also enriched with novel data extracted from images or video with facial or object recognition tools, from license plates and make/model verification of vehicles, or from unstructured data sources. The data collected is large and complex, limiting human capabilities, and ideally will also be analyzed by machine learning algorithms to determine and report the level of risk to authorities. As shared by Nate Carpenter, Chief Technology Officer at Securiport, a Washington DC civil aviation and border security technology company, “Artificial intelligence and machine learning have revolutionized the analysis of data and enabled the detection of patterns that humans would be hard-pressed to find. Given the volume and variety of traveler relevant data, from biometrics to travel history to open-source intelligence related to high-risk individuals, the border security authorities can augment their work with these tools to help them process travelers efficiently.”
Even though many countries have yet to implement digital IDs for their citizens, AI has the capability to extrapolate and understand vast amount of information to identify a person and detect if a suspected individual or person of interest has shared numerous articles propagating terrorist behavior, posted content promoting violence or has written about endangering others in a specific country or region. With various data collected, aggregated, and analyzed, AI/ML technologies such as Securiport’s provide monitoring and detection of potential threats while helping authorities act quickly and efficiently to secure their national borders. Securiport’s AI-enhanced border security systems allow authorities to identify, collect, and review relevant online activity of specific individuals and, with a rules-based targeting approach, can trigger further investigation into the individual’s dossier. As a leader in border security advanced analytics tools, Securiport has its various proprietary solutions deployed across the world.
How can AI support better decision making and enhance situational awareness?
By using AI based facial recognition technology, border agents can easily detect people entering the country illegally or segment those with criminal records. Furthermore, AI-driven systems can be used to identify vehicles and individuals that may have entered the country illegally or pose a threat to national security. For instance, AI-driven systems compile data set on travelers’ locations gathered from different travel databases, such as those established and made accessible to the government by airlines and railways, to combine it with data about countries with high rates of corruption or lax financial regulations. As such, AI can be used to help prevent violations of a country’s law, and to detect violations of other laws that are not yet fully automated or written into legislation (such as safety standards for cars, or hazardous materials including precursor chemicals for drug manufacturing). There are indeed several ways the use of AI in border security can be beneficial to governments, though the added value for authorities is better situational awareness and decision-making support.
AI can enhance situational awareness: AI can be used to aggregate and monitor across a vast number of data sources to provide a comprehensive picture of the situation at the border, beyond the capabilities of a team of humans. This information can then be used to improve the response of border security forces. For example, if there is an unusual build-up of people at the border, along with a change in the pattern of nationalities being observed, this can be detected, and the necessary measures can be taken in advance.
AI can provide better decision-making support: AI can support border authorities, such as those operating in Passenger Information Units, in their efforts to analyze large amounts of data to identify patterns and trends. This information is essential to improve decision-making in relation to border security and serves to reduce the workload of the expert practitioners. Furthermore, the role of AI extends to supporting immigration officer and border agents, who can use the data to gather information about border crossing trends and detect anomalies, such as a pattern of illegal border crossings at a particular location. This allows additional resources to be allocated to this area.
The Complexity of the use of AI
The use of AI in border security is a complex issue, requiring involvement of various stakeholders to balance the efficiency, security, accuracy, and compliance aspects of such systems. The integration of AI in border control functionalities will facilitate the de-prioritization of irrelevant activity and bring focus to analysis of relevant or risky activities. AI can used to identify patterns indicative of threat to the nation’s safety and security. Securiport has designed and developed a series of AI-enhanced border security solutions for stakeholders and competent authorities tasked with border management and security. In conclusion, it is inevitable that AI gradually becomes an essential and powerful tool for authorities to monitor, protect and defend their borders.
Originally published on The Africa Report
