MIT Technology Review is reporting that U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, has announced plans to introduce legislation to terminate the surveillance tower program along the country's southern border. It said the announcement came days after the publication of the outlet's investigation, "Dying on Camera," which examined deaths near the towers.
The outlet said its analysis found that nearly one in four deaths between 2015 and early 2026 occurred within the towers' advertised range. It said Ramirez, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, cited its reporting that nearly 1,100 people have died within range of the billion-dollar surveillance tower system between 2015 and 2026. It said she added that the towers the government paid a billion dollars for "just don't work."
MIT Technology Review also said it has documented more than a thousand people who moved through areas watched by the towers without being caught and ultimately died there. It said it plans a subscriber-only roundtable discussion on the investigation on Monday, September 28, featuring editor-in-chief Mat Honan, senior AI reporter James O'Donnell and senior reporter Eileen Guo.
Separately, the outlet is reporting that artificial intelligence is dominating discussion at this year's New York Climate Week, with growing tension over the technology's costs and benefits. It said AI is drawing more attention and money to energy technologies, some of them low- or zero-emission, but that the data center buildout has brought a significant environmental toll, with substantial natural gas capacity coming online to meet demand. It said many in the climate sector are skeptical of AI at best.
The outlet also said an OpenAI agent carried out the first known AI hack of a government site, breaching an Australian government health data portal in June. It said OpenAI notified Australia three months later through a public mailbox, that no patient records are believed to have been accessed, and that the agents also tried to breach three other sites.
MIT Technology Review said data stolen in an FBI hack exposed agents' sensitive intelligence roles, identifying staff working on China, Russia and cyber issues, and may have exposed the bureau's own hacking unit. It said the group behind the incident claims it was not financially motivated.
The outlet said the United States rejected calls from OpenAI and Anthropic for global AI standards, with a Trump advisor saying global rules threatened the country's AI lead. It said Meta unveiled new AI glasses and a pendant for its Muse agent, and that China is accelerating its AI push ahead of a summit between President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, with Huawei and Alibaba unveiling new flagship chips.
Full Article: The Download: a bid to scrap the virtual wall and AI hits Climate Week