TEEN'S HOMETOWN BURNED DOWN—THEN HE USED AI TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

Newsweek Exclusive Feature

At 16, Viau watched wildfires destroy his family’s homes. At 21, his AI wildfire invention responds faster than NASA.

Most teenagers busy themselves with high school, games or parties. Most, but not Franco Rodriguez Viau. The then 16-year-old was subjected to the horror of watching his loved ones' homes burn in a devastating wildfire while only a sophomore. Knowing firsthand the toll such disasters take on lives, nature, and futures, the teen set out to find a solution.

Now 21, Viau, from Argentina, has become one of the most influential young innovators in the global climate tech movement. His creation—Satellites on Fire—is an AI-powered wildfire detection platform used, thus far, in 19 countries, credited with helping prevent hundreds of blazes from escalating into uncontrollable disasters that could have claimed countless lives.

“I try to not get stuck on my feelings, I try to use them as something to inspire me and motivate me,” Viau told Newsweek, while attending the 2025 One Young World Summit in Munich, Germany. “I think it’s also the best way to launch a startup—to have a personal problem and to be able to overcome that feeling and take action.”

As fires raged through Cordoba, Argentina, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Viau had to get used to seeing smoke burn from building tops, hearing anxiety-inducing news reports and worrying about his family and friends. The disaster claimed two lives and scorched over 60,000 hectares of land.

“I had loved ones who lost their houses. Fortunately, they were able to go out in time,” he said. “But it was a strong experience for me.”

Rather than being paralyzed by worry, Viau became obsessed with the question: why are we still relying on people calling 911 to detect wildfires?

"I started this mission at 16-years-old when my friends were playing video games," Viau said. "I set out to speak with hundreds of people who work with wildfires, because I kept wondering, how is it possible that in the 21st century we cannot catch a fire before it destroys everything?

"With that problem in mind, I started moving and researching, and the feelings I felt while watching the disaster in Cordoba helped me."

Building the System and Defying Doubt

He began reaching out to firefighters, forest rangers and scientists to understand how fires spread, why alerts often come too late, and what could be done differently.

His curiosity, sharpened by a childhood spent devouring science, coding and physics courses—often encouraged by his mother who challenged him to question the status quo—turned into something bigger than a school project.

“At the time, I was in high school, and every year we did a big project," Viau said. "It could be making a game, a website, anything.

“My group started developing the system for more than four months. We presented it at school, but we didn’t want it to end as a school project—but really get to help and save people’s lives.”

At first, their ambitious idea was dismissed.

Franco Rodriguez Viau speaks at the One Young World summit in Munich, Germany. Credit: SEVEN HILLS BPI

“We spoke with people who work on national parks, and they told us that what we did was useless,” he said.

But instead of giving up, Viau, along with two other teenagers with no formal experience, worked harder. They kept refining the concept, talking to more people on the front lines of wildfires, determined to turn Satellites on Fire into a tool that will one day matter.

The final version integrates satellite imagery from more than eight satellites belonging to NASA, NOAA, the European Space Agency, and combines that data with AI models and real-time simulations. When it detects fire, it does not just log it. It sends coordinates and predictive modelling to first responders on WhatsApp, showing how the flames are expected to spread in the coming hours, based on climate data and fuel load, so that they have a better chance at tackling the situation.

"Typically, nowadays, fire departments learn about wildfires through people calling 911," Viau said. "That's how they get so catastrophic, because the caller doesn't know the coordinates of the fire, and firefighters cannot efficiently reach it.

"Plus, once they get there, they don't know how the fire will propagate."

At the time of writing, Viau's teenage invention can detect fires faster than NASA.

“Time is the most important thing when tackling a fire,” Viau said.

Making an Impact

In one instance, the system alerted responders to a fire near a campsite in Cordoba before the campers were even aware of it. In another Argentine case, it detected a blaze at 1:40 a.m.—seven hours ahead of NASA’s alert.

In Mexico, local brigades using the wildfire predicting system had their first fire season with zero fatalities.

So far, Satellites on Fire has helped monitor over 200 million hectares across 19 countries, and in just the last three months alone, it has assisted in more than 400 wildfire responses. The app is used by national parks, firefighting units, carbon credit projects and forestry companies, many of which operate in rural, impoverished or underserved communities.

"...We didn’t want it to end as a school project—but really get to help and save people’s lives."

But for Viau, the stats are not the motivator. The real reward, he says, is knowing that people, animals, and forests are still standing because of something he built.

“Protecting nature is the thing that motivates me the most,” he said.

Despite his youth, the Gen Zer speaks with the perspective of someone much older—likely the result of confronting environmental loss so early and experimenting with complex technological concepts as a child.

“The entrepreneurial journey is not an easy one,” Viau said. “But feeling that we are transcending in some sense—like making something that is impacting the world, making the world a better place to live in, or saving people’s lives and saving biodiversity, makes up for it."

Viau grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina—a city he still lives in—in a household where curiosity and quick thinking was non-negotiable.

“When I was 11, I did magic tricks in parks to win money," he said. "Then I got a gold medal in gymnastics. Then I won some medals in chess. And then when I was 15, I learned how to code.”

Before Satellites on Fire, Viau had already launched another social impact project that was featured in Argentine media.

By the time he reached adulthood, he had secured funding his latest endeavor from institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell University, the United Nations, and even the founder of Reddit.

His startup now includes engineers from NASA, machine learning consultants from the University of Oxford, and advisors from the European Space Agency and several national park systems.

Still, Viau is adamant that Satellites on Fire stays grounded in its mission—and will not become just another tech company, driven by profit.

“Most of the organizations that back and fund Satellites on Fire are climate, tech or impact-focused,” he said. “And because I experienced the problem personally...What motivates me and the team is continuing to generate this impact.”

As for what is next, Viau plans to move beyond detection into wildfire suppression—using drones to put out fires remotely—and expanding into the U.S., Africa, and parts of Southeast Asia. He also wants to get better at measuring the platform’s long-term environmental benefits by examining how much biodiversity is saved.

But even as the business scales up, Viau is careful to stay focused on why it all started in the first place.

As he puts it: "We want to use AI—but responsibly and for the problems that we are having in the world at this moment."

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