We are excited to announce that AI and Faith Advisors Glen Weyl and Ben Olsen have been awarded the 2025 International Religious Freedom Peacebuilder’s Award by the International Religious Freedom Secretariat. The award was presented in Prague on November 12, 2025, during an invitation-only ceremony at the Czech National Museum, as part of the High-Level Conference of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA). This prestigious award celebrates leaders whose work advances the universal principles of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion — values enshrined in Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
According to the official award notification, the IRF Secretariat recognized Glen and Ben for their leadership in establishing the groundbreaking Technology for Religious Empowerment (T4RE) Initiative at Microsoft, which sets a new standard for how technology can strengthen understanding, dignity, and collaboration among global faith communities. The IRF Secretariat emphasized that, at a time when advanced technologies such as generative and agentic AI are transforming society, Ben and Glen’s commitment to ethical innovation and multi-faith engagement represents “a model for other corporations and one that we hope soon sets an industry standard.”
The T4RE Initiative grows out of Glen and Ben’s long term promotion at Microsoft of inclusion for a wide array of perspectives on the values underlying the development and impact of technology. It follows the “Morning at Microsoft” meeting of Mainline Protestant denominational leaders with leaders of Responsible AI that AI&F coordinated and promoted as part of the planning for the AI and the Church Summit last year in Seattle. So much is growing out of this T4RE initiative, including the Faith, Family and Technology Network weekly gathering of influential policy and ethics leaders in which over a dozen of our AI&F experts are actively participating, with Ben and Glen on the Steering Committee. How wonderful that this innovative bridge between Big Tech and faith leaders and Glen and Ben’s hard work in organizing it is already being recognized in this important award.
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