AI Expands the State–and Silicon’s Reach

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Meta are deploying artificial intelligence in sharply different domains, highlighting how AI is reshaping both government operations and consumer technology ecosystems.

ICE has integrated AI tools from Palantir and OpenAI to improve operational efficiency, particularly in processing public tips and managing enforcement-related data at scale.

Since May 2025, ICE has used Palantir’s “AI-Enhanced ICE Tip Processing” system to handle inputs from its FALCON tipline. The platform summarizes, translates, and categorizes tips using large language models trained exclusively on public data.

According to the Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 AI inventory, ICE also uses commercially available LLMs—including OpenAI models—to generate concise “Bottom Line Up Front” (BLUF) summaries, enabling faster decision-making without manual review.

ICE maintains that these models are not trained on sensitive or agency-specific datasets, positioning the tools as productivity enhancers rather than autonomous decision systems.

Palantir’s role extends further through its ELITE platform, operational since June 2025, which aggregates multiple government datasets to map enforcement priorities. This has triggered privacy concerns from civil liberties groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, over data linkage and oversight.

In a parallel but distinct use case, Meta is leveraging AI to advance humanoid robotics by collecting real-world data through its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

These glasses capture multimodal inputs—video, audio, and motion data—which Meta uses to train embodied AI systems capable of human-like navigation and interaction.

The real-world datasets help robots learn spatial awareness, object manipulation, and social cues, accelerating development beyond simulated environments.

Meta’s approach reflects a broader industry trend where wearables feed large-scale training pipelines for robotics and embodied AI, blurring the line between consumer devices and foundational AI infrastructure.

Together, ICE and Meta illustrate how AI is becoming deeply embedded across governance, surveillance, and emerging physical intelligence—raising parallel questions around efficiency, innovation, and accountability.