“ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN BORDER CONTROL: OPPORTUNITY OR THREAT? AN ANALYSIS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PRACTICES IN CONTROLLING BORDER”

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in border control, discussing the idea of whether it is an opportunity or a threat to state security, governance, and human rights. The paper follows the historical development of border security, starting with primitive physical barriers as the primitive form of border security, to the modern surveillance systems based on AI, which points to the technological, ethical, and political sides of dealing with border security today. The study uses a literature review to come up with major themes such as the efficiency of operations, ethical and human rights issues, governance gaps, impact on the society and global differences in the use of AI.The results show that AI boosts the efficiency, accuracy, and predictive ability of the border control activity greatly, allowing to identify the risks in real-time, evaluate them, and improve the management of the migration. All the advantages, however, come at the cost of significant risks associated with algorithmic bias, breaching privacy, dehumanization of migrants, and reduced transparency and accountability. The two-sided character of AI represents a radical prospect of changing the border to seem more modern and also a threat to the democratic control and human rights. The paper concludes that implementation of AI in border management should be successful with strong ethical principles on the one hand, to achieve the balance between the security goals and the respect of the personal rights through effective human control and transparency, as well as international collaboration.The study will add to the discussion of AI in border governance by critically commenting on how it operates, ethically, and in the society. It underlines that borders systems that are operated by AI require interdisciplinary strategies and policy interventions that would help to make them instruments of protection and not control.