US planning to deploy robot dogs to patrol southern border with Mexico

Robot dogs are being deployed to patrol the US's southern border with Mexico, attracting criticism that such a move will exacerbate "anti-immigrant dystopia" and the invasive and dehumanising conditions already prevalent in the region. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tueday said it was deploying robot dogs to patrol the country's southern border with Mexico to assist its Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel. The goal of the programme, it said, was to leverage technology to increase the presence of CBP at the borders and to reduce "human exposure to life-threatening hazards". "The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there," Brenda Long, programme manager of the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) at DHS, said in a statement. "This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or what we call'AGSVs.' Essentially, the AGSV program is all about… robot dogs," Ms Long added.