A US Army soldier monitors the country's border with Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas, after President Donald Trump ordered 1,500 more active military personnel to the border as part of his actions to tackle undocumented immigration
A US Army soldier monitors the country's border with Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas, after President Donald Trump ordered 1,500 more active military personnel to the border as part of his actions to tackle undocumented immigration. AFP

KEY POINTS

  • Vance said the border already uses AI for enforcement, but the goal is to 'make sure that technology is deployed across the entire American southern border'
  • He said an example is AI tech integrated on border cameras to pick up activity as far as two miles away from the border
  • Trump has been moving accordingly with this embrace of AI after he appointed the White House's first AI czar

U.S. President Donald Trump is hopeful the entire southern border wall will be constructed by the end of his term, Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday, and it won't just be a regular wall, but one with artificial intelligence technology.

Vance was visiting the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard when he made the comments.

"I think the president's hope is that by the end of the term we build the entire wall," he said.

An AI-Enabled Border Wall for Enhanced Security

Vance, who, a day earlier, repeatedly got up on his feet and lauded Trump during his first ever Congress address a day earlier, said he "heard" Wednesday that the southern border wall's construction will employ "good technological tools."

"We're using artificial intelligence to make us better at the job of border enforcement, but we've got to make sure that technology is deployed across the entire American southern border," he said.

He said there are new AI-powered technologies that will allow the United States to improve border security.

As an example, Vance said an AI-enabled camera will pick up activity as far as two miles away from the border, and such capabilities can strengthen the country's bid toward protecting "the American people's security."

Since Trump's inauguration, illegal border crossings have decreased. In February, the White House reported that illegal border crossings are at their lowest in at least 25 years. The administration also states over 50,000 undocumented individuals, including those with violent criminal histories, have been removed from the U.S.

Trump Taking AI Arms Race Seriously

Vance's revelation about the border wall potentially being armored with AI technology comes weeks after tech stocks were rocked to the core by the launch of Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI chatbot that performed impressively well considering its "low-cost" development budget.

Trump said the DeepSeek AI assistant's release should be a "wake-up call" for the American tech industry, suggesting U.S.-based AI developers should step up their game.

Trump Embraces AI

With Trump supposedly considering AI technology for the southern border wall, it further cements his commitment to embracing new and advanced technologies – a move the previous administration had been more cautious of.

He appointed the first ever White House AI and cryptocurrency czar (David Sacks) ahead of his inauguration and has also forged very close ties with Elon Musk, who has his own AI company, xAI, and recently launched the latest iteration of the Grok chatbot.

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