by Leo Hohmann, Leo’s Newsletter:
Homeland Security paying $2 million for 4-legged robots. Contract lands amid broader buildout covering facial recognition, automated license-plate readers and electric-shock gloves, among other tools.
I reported on August 18 that militarized AI robots would be the next big thing in law enforcement and state-sponsored surveillance, as nation states follow the lead of China in using robots to force humans to comply with increasingly tyrannical government edicts. As Trump’s war in Iran continues to rage causing shortages of diesel and jet fuel, energy lockdowns are a strong possibility.
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Low and behold, the big story this week is robotic dogs being purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE).
A newly unearthed DHS document shows that ICE is preparing to buy four-legged SPOT robots from Boston Dynamics.
A tentative notice that alerts private companies of the government’s upcoming procurement needs lists the deal valued at up to $2 million with a formal solicitation expected on September 4.
The online tech journal Geekspin reports:
According to the document, the robots will handle inspection, situational awareness, and hazard assessment in places that put human personnel at risk. Officer safety is cited as the stated justification.
However, the forecast itself remains broad and says nothing about immigration enforcement. It also provides no specific operational scenarios for where or how the robots would be sent in.
Boston Dynamics describes Spot, a roughly 75-pound unit that’s able to handle stairs and rough terrain, as an easy-to-use tool. It operates remotely and transmits real-time data with the help of thermal imaging, cameras, and mapping sensors (available as add-ons) as it goes.
While the DHS document remains vague on exactly how many robots ICE intends to purchase or which specific configurations they will order, the technology’s versatility has sparked immediate questions regarding its potential application.
The report goes on to note that, for ICE, this latest proposed contract lands amid a broader buildout covering facial recognition, automated license-plate readers, commercial data brokers, GPS ankle monitors, smartphone monitoring, voice recognition, electric-shock gloves, and body cameras.
Watch the report below on the proposed purchase of robotic dogs for the purposes of immigration enforcement, and keep in mind that this is an agency, ICE, that didn’t even exist until March 2003, and now we are granting them virtually unlimited funding while arming them with all manner of high-tech military weaponry.
