The Download: a bid to scrap the virtual wall and AI hits Climate Week

Plus: an OpenAI agent has executed the first known AI hack of a government site.

This is today's edition of The Download , our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.

Delia Ramirez, a Democratic US representative from Illinois, has announced plans to introduce legislation to terminate the surveillance tower program along the country’s southern border.

The announcement comes just days after publication of an MIT Technology Review investigation, “Dying on Camera,” which looked at deaths near these towers. Nearly one in four deaths we analyzed between 2015 and early 2026 occurred within their advertised range.

Ramirez, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, cited our reporting that nearly “1,100 people have died within range of a billion-dollar surveillance tower system between 2015 and 2026,” adding, “The towers that we have paid a billion dollars to just don’t work.”