CBP Desires AI-Powered ‘Quantum Sensors’ for Discovering Fentanyl in Automobiles

United States Customs and Border Safety is paying Normal Dynamics to create a prototype of “quantum sensors” alongside a “database with synthetic intelligence” designed “to detect illicit objects and substances (corresponding to fentanyl) in automobiles, containers, and different units,” in accordance with a contract justification printed in a federal register final week.

“This database and sensor challenge will combine superior quantum and classical sensing applied sciences with Synthetic Intelligence and in the end deploy confirmed ideas and finish merchandise anyplace within the CBP surroundings,” the justification doc reads. “Beneath this requirement, CBP will take further steps to reinforce its means to detect, and thus, considerably cut back the harms of illicit contraband coming into the US of America, thus bolstering nationwide safety.”

The doc redacts the title of the corporate growing the prototype; nevertheless, contract particulars included within the federal register entry reveal that the justification is for a $2.4 million Normal Dynamics contract that has been public since December 2025.

CBP and Normal Dynamics didn’t reply to WIRED’s requests for remark.

CBP’s request for a prototype of “quantum sensors” with an AI database—which comes amid a widespread push throughout the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) “to help the adoption and scaling of AI applied sciences,” in accordance with a technique memorandum printed final yr—includes an actual and rising space of scientific and technological analysis.

Final week’s justification doesn’t get into element about which strategies its “quantum sensors” would use or what data the AI database would retailer and analyze. Nevertheless, it does present hints about detection strategies the company has thought of.

The doc claims that CBP performed market analysis from April via October of 2025. In July, CBP printed an data request searching for a vendor for precisely 35 handheld “Gemini” analyzers, bought by Thermo Fisher Scientific, that are designed to establish unknown chemical compounds and narcotics.

DHS has additionally examined the Gemini in earlier years, in accordance with studies printed in 2021 and 2023. The July request—which notes that the units could be used to establish substances like fentanyl, ketamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, diazepam, and MDMA—makes no point out of synthetic intelligence or a database.

“The detection gear can be utilized by CBP Officers in non-intrusive testing to detect a variety of narcotics, managed substances, unknown substances, and common natural supplies,” the request reads, noting that the company “continues to grab an rising variety of opioids on the nation’s borders.”

The July request for data claims that the Gemini analyzers use “Fourier Rework Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR),” which measures how a lot infrared gentle a pattern absorbs, and “Raman spectroscopy,” which measures how gentle scatters off the floor of a pattern when a laser is directed at it.

Final week’s contract justification says that the company discovered an American firm that creates a “handheld analyzer” for figuring out harmful chemical compounds however claimed it “can’t detect fentanyl.” It’s unclear whether or not this was referring to Gemini or one of many greater than 10 different units DHS examined in 2021 and 2023. However when reached for remark, Thermo Fisher Scientific stated that its Gemini analyzers “are designed to detect fentanyl.”

It’s additionally unclear whether or not the Normal Dynamics prototype could use FTIR or Raman spectroscopy. However a 2024 working paper a few laboratory-based fentanyl-detection methodology (unrelated to CBP, Normal Dynamics, or Thermo Fisher Scientific) notes that “moveable Raman spectrometers” and different handheld units—although handy, quick, and cheap—can “battle with detection of fentanyl” and could also be susceptible to “false-positive and false-negative outcomes.”

Whereas it stays ambiguous what precisely final week’s justification was referring to with its point out of “quantum” sensors, there are fentanyl detection strategies based mostly in quantum chemistry. The 2024 paper, as an illustration, explains how “quantum dots” and fluorescent dye can be utilized to detect fentanyl and 58 of its analogues.