The NYU Peace Research and Education Program (PREP) inaugurated its 2026–27 academic year with its annual Reflections from the Field gathering, titled "On Whose Terms? Emerging Tech and Peacebuilding." The event opened with a panel of Master of Science in Global Affairs (MSGA) students sharing insights from their summer Graduate Student Consultancies through the Workshop in Applied Peacebuilding across Jordan, Malawi, Iraq, and Brazil. Reflecting on operational resilience and field initiative, the students explored the practical trade-offs of adopting emerging translation tools and virtual collaboration platforms in complex settings.

Building on these field observations, the keynote practitioner panel examined the systemic governance and ethical dilemmas surrounding technology in peace operations. The discussion brought together Melissa Wild, Executive Director of UPEACE New York and Founding Director of the Global Center for Peace Innovation; Anayansi Lopez, Chief of Human Rights, Peacebuilding, Civil Affairs, and Knowledge Management at the UN Department of Peace Operations; and the Hon. Michael Karel B. Sugguiyao, Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative for Kalinga Province in the Philippines; moderated by Marine Collins Ragnet, Head of Innovation at NYU PREP. Together, they interrogated critical framing questions: whose data counts, whose languages are included, who benefits from new tools, and who pays the hidden price?

The conversation emphasized moving at the "speed of trust" rather than chasing frontier technologies, noting that simple, repurposed platforms like WhatsApp or POLIS often yield far greater social impact than cutting-edge tools. Panelists highlighted how closed-source AI—heavily concentrated among a small group of private corporations in the United States—amplifies existing power imbalances in conflict zones and creates an accountability vacuum. Offering a ground-up response, Sugguiyao detailed Kalinga Province’s creation of a "digital granary"—a landmark local ordinance establishing a community-governed database to protect Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices from AI exploitation. Passed after local students began relying on ChatGPT over tribal elders and commercial AI engines returned distorted native definitions, the law asserts indigenous data sovereignty against corporate encroachment.

The panel also addressed how AI is reshaping institutional truth within peace operations. Lopez detailed how staff reliance on unverified chatbot outputs creates internal operational risks, while targeted deepfakes and coordinated disinformation directly threaten peacekeeping missions on the ground. In response, the UN Department of Peace Operations established a dedicated unit to mitigate digital harms as an everyday operational priority. Concluding the panel, Wild reminded the audience that technology must never eclipse human-centered design: the ultimate challenge for peacebuilders is not keeping pace with technological acceleration, but leading with deep listening, conflict prevention, and local governance.