Claiming asylum

The 1951 convention defines a refugee as someone with a well founded fear of being persecuted, outside the country of their nationality and unable to return. Every term in that sentence needs a person to attach to. Fear is a state of someone, persecution is done to someone, and the protection granted is protection of a life that can be ended. Software already sorts the files, scores the credibility of accounts and predicts outcomes, and several administrations have been taken to court over exactly that. None of it moves the act, which is a person presenting themselves at a border or a counter and asking a state to take responsibility for them. The claim can be examined by a machine. It cannot be made by one, because there would be nobody to send back.