AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter

AI is often framed as a force of radical transformation, either catapulting us into a utopian future or dragging us toward existential ruin. But this book tells a different story. It's not about high-profile tech CEOs who want to use AI to "break shit," but about a bunch of smart pragmatists using AI to make the world better.

Josh Tyrangiel's journey into AI began with a late-night YouTube video featuring General Gustave Perna, the retired four-star general who orchestrated the distribution of Covid vaccines during Operation Warp Speed. Perna's success--and the end of the pandemic--depended on AI's practical ability to synthesize and standardize vast amounts of logistical data. AI wasn't the hero of the story--it was the tool that helped real people get things done.

This book follows those people, who make up a kind of AI counterculture. It explores AI's quiet revolution in government services, medicine, education, and human connection--places where it's being used to amplify human judgment rather than replace it. It tells the stories of teachers, doctors, and bureaucrats who often stumbled into AI as a means to solve specific, tangible problems, often with no prior software expertise.

While the loudest voices in AI debate doomsday scenarios and trillion-dollar market opportunities, this book focuses on those working in the messy, incremental, but deeply impactful space of AI practice. However, there is one big caveat--success is not guaranteed. Change is hard. Institutions move slowly. But even in failure there are lessons for everyone who's interested in using AI--carefully, thoughtfully--to build a better world today.