Is AI Coming in Peace? How AI is Reshaping Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Action

Artificial intelligence is transforming how we wage war – but can it also transform how we build peace?

This talk explores the emerging role of AI in peacebuilding and humanitarian action, examining both its remarkable potential and its profound risks. You will discover how AI is already being used to predict conflict years before violence erupts, analyze evidence of war crimes at unprecedented speed, facilitate dialogue between deeply divided communities, and amplify the voices of those typically excluded from peace negotiations. Real-world case studies will illustrate what becomes possible when we build AI with peace as the goal rather than an afterthought.

But with these possibilities come critical ethical challenges. The same AI capabilities that document atrocities can be used to commit them, and systems designed for analysis can escalate conflicts when misapplied. The speakers will confront these dilemmas head-on, offering insights into how emerging technologies can be responsibly integrated into the peacebuilding toolkit.

Whether you work in humanitarian response, conflict prevention, policy, or technology, this talk will equip you with a clearer understanding of how AI is reshaping peace and security – and the choices we face in guiding its future.

Zur Person

Branka Panic is the Founding Director of AI for Peace, a US based think tank ensuring artificial intelligence benefits peace, security, and sustainable development and where diverse voices influence the development of AI and related technologies. Branka is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, where she focuses on researching the utilization of data-driven approaches to conflict prevention and peacebuilding. She is the host of “Data for Peace” online series. Branka is also a Stimson-Microsoft Responsible AI Fellow, a member of UNESCO Women4Ethical AI, and a member of IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems and a Senior Advisor on AI to the German Federal Foreign Office. A passionate advocate for positive peace with 15 years of global experience in the humanitarian, peace, and development fields, Branka’s current emphasis is researching the benefits, risks, and ethical implications of emerging technologies. Her contributions to the field have been recognized internationally, including her selection as one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics (2022) and as the winner of the “She Shapes AI 2024/25” award in the AI and Peace category. She is a co-author of a book “AI for Peace”, published in April 2024, by Routledge.

Andreas Papp is an entrepreneur and aid worker. He began his professional involvement with NGOs in 2004 as an administrator at Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in West Darfur, Sudan. He subsequently coordinated emergency relief projects at the project and country level in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East for several years. Andreas then worked as program director of the MSF branch in Austria. From 2015 to 2019, Andreas moved to SOS Children’s Villages as director of international disaster relief, where he supported the development of emergency relief programs in 28 countries. Since 2013, Andreas Papp has also been a lecturer at Webster University in Vienna and at the Austrian Center for Peace at Schlaining Castle. At the beginning of 2020, he founded his own company, Andreas Papp Consulting e.U., and in March 2025, PeaceEye FlexCo, which focuses on geopolitical risk analysis in the world’s crisis regions.

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