Artificial intelligence, artificial security: Digital technologies and authoritarian politics
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Country/Region
17 June 2025
Join Statewatch and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience to discuss the nexus between state power, digital technologies and security politics in Europe and the USA.
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Details
Tuesday 17 June, 16:00 BST
Online, via Zoom: Registration form
The webinar will take place in English. Unfortunately we are unable to offer interpretation.
Overview
The EU wants to become a world leader in regulating artificial intelligence. But its landmark legislation, the AI Act, is riddled with exemptions for policing and migration authorities – in large part due to lobbying by police forces and increasingly-authoritarian governments.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Donald Trump’s return to power has ushered in a new wave of tech-fuelled repression and exclusion, with migrants and dissidents – especially those supporting the rights of Palestinians – facing intimidation, violence, imprisonment and deportation.
At the webinar, Statewatch staff will present our latest report, Automating Authority: Artificial intelligence in European police and border regimes.
The report exposes the efforts of the EU and its member states to develop and deploy an array of ‘artificial intelligence’ technologies, including profiling tools, facial recognition, and machine learning systems.
These will reinforce the racism, discrimination and violence inherent in policing, border, immigration and criminal justice policies, and require the gathering of ever-larger quantities of sensitive personal data.
We will be joined by friends from the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience, who will discuss the externalisation of the United States border, and the technological industries and politics that advance it.
Speakers
Chris Jones, Director, Statewatch
Chris has been working for Statewatch since 2010 and has been the organisation’s Executive Director since September 2020. He has written hundreds of articles and reports for Statewatch, covering issues such as police powers, immigration controls, security technologies, state surveillance and government secrecy in the EU, UK and Spain. He has also had work published by OpenDemocracy, The Guardian, The Intercept, Middle East Eye, Politico Europe, and Público. He holds an undergraduate degree in history and a masters degree in human rights.
Romain Lanneau, Researcher, Statewatch
Romain Lanneau is a legal researcher, publishing on the topics of migration, asylum, and the use of new technologies for public policies. He has been working for Statewatch since 2022. As an independent consultant, he worked for the European Network Against Racism, Fair Trials International and Data Rights. In addition to leading investigation and producing research, Romain has been assisting activists with strategic litigation on digital rights issues. He holds a LLM in International Migration and Refugee Law from the University of VU Amsterdam as well as a Master degree in Public International Law from the University of Lyon III.
Mizue Aizeki, Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
Mizue Aizeki is the founder and Executive Director of the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience (CRCR), which includes projects such as the Surveillance Resistance Lab and The Praxis Lab. For nearly twenty years, Mizue has focused on the injustices at the intersections of the criminal and migration control systems—including bordering, criminalization, imprisonment, and exile. Prior to founding CRCR, Mizue worked at the Immigrant Defense Project, where she founded their advocacy program and led multiple successful policy initiatives. Mizue is a co-editor of Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence (Haymarket Books, February 2024). Mizue’s photographic work appears in Dying to Live, A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid (City Lights Books, 2008) and Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter (Verso, 2016).
Bárbara Paes, Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
Bárbara Paes is a researcher and project manager, with a decade of experience working with civil society organizations on issues related to social justice, power and technology. Prior to joining the CRCR, she undertook research, advocacy and communications for organizations such as Article 19 Brazil, Glitch, The Engine Room, The MERL Tech Initiative on topics such as freedom of information, tech-facilitated gender-based violence and responsible data. Bárbara is also the co-founder of Instituto Minas Programam in Brazil, where she has helped create spaces for Black brazilian girls and women to learn about technology through feminist and anti-racist perspectives. She holds a Masters degree in Gender and Development from the University of Sussex.
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Further reading
Automating Authority: Artificial intelligence in European police and border regimes
<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are being embedded into everyday life by powerful actors, primarily motivated by profit. Police, border and criminal justice agencies are also looking to take advantage of the new powers AI offers for “security” policies, at both national and EU level. The EU is creating new infrastructure, away from the public eye, to allow the swift development and deployment of “security AI.” This will also reinforce the existing discrimination, violence and harm caused by policing, border and criminal justice policies. Exposing and understanding this emerging security AI complex is the first step to challenging it.</p>
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