On 16 June 2026, a special PeaceTech Alliance event, co-hosted by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and SBA Research, welcomed Hiroshima survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Setsuko Thurlow to Vienna. The event, titled “Hiroshima’s Message for Tech Students and Innovators Today”, brought her vital perspective to the next generation of tech leaders.
The event was moderated by Heather Wokusch, a human rights and non-proliferation advocate who develops digital learning solutions internationally. Bringing together students, early-career researchers, innovators, and members of Austria’s growing PeaceTech community, the gathering created a unique space for dialogue across generations and disciplines and invited participants to reflect on the responsibilities that come with shaping emerging technologies. In addition to Setsuko Thurlow’s personal address, participants attended the Vienna presentation of the documentary “The Vow from Hiroshima”, offering audiences a powerful cinematic reflection on her life’s work and decades of global advocacy for nuclear disarmament. Through testimony, film, and open discussion, the event connected questions of innovation, ethics, peace, and security with lived human experience.
As one of the remaining Hibakusha and a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Thurlow shared her experiences of surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the age of thirteen and reflected on eighty years of advocacy for a world free from nuclear weapons. While her message centred on nuclear disarmament, it also carried a broader lesson that resonated strongly with participants from Austria's growing PeaceTech community: the need to remember our shared humanity when addressing the challenges of peace and security. Speaking in Vienna, Thurlow challenged audiences to imagine security not as domination through fear, but as a shared human endeavour grounded in cooperation, justice, international law, and human dignity.
For the PeaceTech Alliance, this message reflects a principle that sits at the heart of its work. "PeaceTech is nothing without lived experience, if the tech doesn’t reflect the peacebuilder, it is pointless," said Nathan Coyle, PeaceTech Lead at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and co-founder of the PeaceTech Alliance. "Setsuko Thurlow is not just a figurehead of this field; she is a seasoned campaigner dedicated to making nuclear weapons a thing of the past, so I could not resist asking her what her message would be to those who wish to build PeaceTech. At the PeaceTech Alliance, we always say 'people first, tech second.' It is one thing to talk about putting lived experience at the heart of design, but events like this are where we put it into practice. We want to position the peacebuilders, not the tech developers, at the forefront, giving them the platform to craft what PeaceTech should look like in the future.”
Following Nathan Coyle’s remarks, Michael Mürling, co-founder of the PeaceTech Alliance at the AIT Center for Digital Safety & Security, added: “At AIT, we became a founding partner of the PeaceTech Alliance because we believe that technological progress and societal responsibility must go hand in hand. Too often, conversations about emerging technologies are shaped without sufficient involvement of people and communities with lived experience of conflict or those working directly in peacebuilding. By bringing together research, diplomacy, society, and future generations, we want to help ensure that innovation serves people and contributes to a more peaceful and resilient future.”
When asked what message she would like Austria’s next generation of developers and innovators to take into future PeaceTech ecosystems, Ms. Thurlow’s answer was simple and direct: “Remember your own humanity.”
From Lived Experience to Responsible Innovation
The screening of “The Vow from Hiroshima” formed a central part of the event experience. The documentary follows Setsuko Thurlow’s decades-long commitment to nuclear disarmament and her contribution to achieving the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Presented to audiences in Vienna in the context of this event, the film created an additional opportunity for reflection and dialogue and reinforced the importance of preserving lived experience as part of conversations about the future of technology and global security.
The PeaceTech Alliance was established to support the development of human-centric approaches to technology and innovation for peace. Bringing together stakeholders from diplomacy, research, civil society, government, and technology, the Alliance seeks to ensure that innovation serves people and communities rather than the other way around. For the Alliance, events such as Setsuko Thurlow’s visit are more than commemorative moments. They create unique opportunities for younger generations of researchers and innovators to engage directly with voices shaped by the consequences of conflict and to reflect on how technological progress can be aligned with human values, responsibility, and long-term societal impact.
As Austria continues exploring its role in ethical and human-centric PeaceTech, the Alliance believes that stories such as Thurlow's are not peripheral to innovation discussions but essential to them. The humanitarian consequences of conflict cannot be understood through data alone. They are understood through the voices of people and communities who have experienced those consequences first-hand. The PeaceTech Alliance remains committed to creating opportunities for these voices to be heard and to ensuring that the development of new approaches to peacebuilding is informed by lived experience, community needs, and a deep respect for human dignity.
Reflecting on Thurlow's visit, members of the Alliance noted that the most important lesson from the event was not about technology at all. It was about humanity. As the international community confronts growing insecurity, conflict, and geopolitical tension, Thurlow's message serves as a reminder that peace is ultimately built through our relationships with one another, our willingness to listen, and our commitment to protecting human dignity. For the PeaceTech Alliance, these values will continue to guide how innovation for peace is imagined, developed, and applied.
About the PeaceTech Alliance
The PeaceTech Alliance was initiated and co-founded by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in 2025 as a multi stakeholder initiative bringing together organisations from peacebuilding, diplomacy, research, civil society, international organisations, and technology. The Alliance advances human-centric approaches to PeaceTech, ethical innovation, and responsible data governance and is guided by the principle of “Do No Harm”, recognising that technologies should be designed, developed, and deployed in ways that minimise unintended consequences and actively contribute to human dignity, societal resilience, and peace. Through dialogue, collaboration, and practical action, the Alliance works to ensure that innovation serves communities and contributes to more peaceful, just, and resilient societies.
Further information: https://www.peacetech-alliance.com/