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The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

  • Inspace 1 Crichton Street Edinburgh, Scotland, EH8 9AB United Kingdom (map)
Event image with with a headshot photo of Petra Molnar, a faded blue to green background, and text reading: The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Petra Molnar, 26 June 2024 4-5pm Hybrid at Inspace

About this event

This event is a collaboration between the BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) Programme, the Edinburgh Futures Institute's Centre for Technomoral Futures, and the Law School at the University of Edinburgh.

Please note this event starts at 16:10 to allow time for in-person audiences including staff and students to move around campus. Zoom Webinar will open from16:00 for online audiences

The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Join us as we hear from Petra Molnar on her new book, The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence! This book lays out a global story of the sharpening of borders through technological experiments, reflecting on 6 years of on-the-ground work, while introducing strategies of togetherness across physical and ideological borders.

Speaker Biographies

Petra Molnar is a lawyer and researcher specializing in migration, technology, and human rights. She has worked on forced migration and refugee issues since 2008 as a settlement worker, researcher, and lawyer and holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Toronto and an LL.M. specializing in International Law from the University of Cambridge. She co-runs the Refugee Law Lab at York University and is a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Her study of the human rights impacts of AI and automated technologies on migration control is presented in her new book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.


Dr John Zerilli (chair) is a philosopher with interests in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and the law. He is the Chancellor’s Fellow (Assistant Professor) in AI, Data, and the Rule of Law at the University of Edinburgh, a Research Associate in the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, and an Associate Fellow in the Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. Before taking up his current post, he was a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Oxford. He was also called to the Sydney bar in 2011. His published work appears in such journals as Philosophy of Science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Synthese. His two most recent books are The Adaptable Mind (Oxford University Press, 2020) and A Citizen's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, 2021).

Running Order

16.00 – Welcome by Dr John Zerilli

16.10 – Talk by Petra Molnar

16.40 – Q&A

17.00 – End

In-person: Inspace, 1 Crichton St, Newington, Edinburgh EH8 9AB
Online: Zoom

Please note limited seats are available at Inspace for in-person audiences, so please book tickets in advance. For those joining online please visit the online event page for the Zoom joining link and password.

*Important Notice* This event will be photographed, recorded and live streamed and the data published online and used for research, promotional and reporting purposes by BRAID UK and the Centre for Technomoral Futures based at the University of Edinburgh. For further information please contact the organisers.