Authorities are always looking for ways to make sure drugs don’t enter the country or your neighborhood.
Agencies are now turning to artificial intelligence to help us stay safe, especially at the southern border.
That’s where Border Patrol agents found nearly 99% of the fentanyl smuggled into the United States.
A drug like fentanyl can be almost impossible to find simply using orthodox methods.
To help, the government is expanding a $9 million contract awarded to global supply chain startup platform Altana to use an artificial intelligence tool to track fentanyl production.
How AI is being used to track fentanyl production
Altana uses artificial intelligence to track companies that manufacture ingredients used to make fentanyl.
It also tracks where those ingredients are shipped.
Agents can then use that information to shut down production and distribution networks of the deadly synthetic opioid.
The company incorporates all this information into a constantly growing knowledge map.
While we don’t know exactly how Altana tracks those companies, it does show the relationship between suppliers and manufacturers. It even shows billions of transactions.
It works much like the startup’s efforts to track down products made through forced labor.
Altana uses AI to track companies that manufacture ingredients used to make fentanyl. Getty Images/iStockphoto
How AI is helping border patrol seize fentanyl and arrest traffickers
The Border Patrol has seen results using artificial intelligence technology.
According to Customs and Border Protection reports, agents have carried out two massive missions since hiring Altana in July.
One of them resulted in the seizure of 13,000 pounds of ingredients used in the production of fentanyl. Agents arrested 284 people and confiscated 10,000 pounds of fentanyl in another.
The fact that Altana can create an ever-growing map showing suppliers and manufacturers using public data is mind-blowing.
That’s something that would be ridiculously difficult to achieve without AI and would also require enormous amounts of manpower.
The government is expanding a $9 million contract with Altana to use an artificial intelligence tool to track fentanyl production. DEA
Furthermore, we are already seeing results. But I have to wonder if this can be exploited. Can fentanyl manufacturers and distributors obtain this information? If so, how would they use it? Is there even any use for them?
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Source: vtt.edu.vn