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AI For Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter
In contrast to the wave of noisy polemics around AI, AI For Good explores how, in practice, it can actually improve our lives and tells the stories of everyday citizens at the forefront of this new “AI entrepreneurship.”
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.
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.
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Published May 12, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 2, 2026
I went into "AI for Good" curious, but also a little skeptical.
I do use AI regularly but I'm also adamant on teaching students to be cautious about over-relying on it, I’m very aware of the concerns: privacy, data storage, hallucinations, corporate control, environmental impact, and all the harms we already know about, never mind the ones we probably don’t yet.
What I appreciated about this book is that it does not try to convince the reader that AI is harmless or magical.
It also is not a deep dive into every ethical concern surrounding AI. Instead, it is a readable, people-centered look at how AI is already being used by educators, doctors, researchers, parents, and others who are trying to solve real problems.
The education chapters were the most personally relevant to me, but I was also fascinated by the medical examples, especially around sepsis, and the final chapter on communication and nonverbal individuals. The most compelling parts of the book are not really about what AI can do. They are about the people asking whether AI can help them teach, heal, connect, or improve someone’s life.
This is a quick, accessible read, and probably a useful primer for people who want to think about AI without getting buried in technical language.
It is optimistic, maybe even sunny and breezy, but the author does not tell us to leave our umbrella at home. That balance worked for me.
I do use AI regularly but I'm also adamant on teaching students to be cautious about over-relying on it, I’m very aware of the concerns: privacy, data storage, hallucinations, corporate control, environmental impact, and all the harms we already know about, never mind the ones we probably don’t yet.
What I appreciated about this book is that it does not try to convince the reader that AI is harmless or magical.
It also is not a deep dive into every ethical concern surrounding AI. Instead, it is a readable, people-centered look at how AI is already being used by educators, doctors, researchers, parents, and others who are trying to solve real problems.
The education chapters were the most personally relevant to me, but I was also fascinated by the medical examples, especially around sepsis, and the final chapter on communication and nonverbal individuals. The most compelling parts of the book are not really about what AI can do. They are about the people asking whether AI can help them teach, heal, connect, or improve someone’s life.
This is a quick, accessible read, and probably a useful primer for people who want to think about AI without getting buried in technical language.
It is optimistic, maybe even sunny and breezy, but the author does not tell us to leave our umbrella at home. That balance worked for me.
June 20, 2026
3.5/5. This was better than I expected but still not terribly exciting. I was pleasantly surprised that it followed like a Freakonomics vibes in the sense that the book covered various ambitious AI ventures in parts. So we did get to sit with the characters for a while. It covered school systems leveraging AI with Sal Khan to give kids with varying abilities the same attention; Cleveland Clinic using AI to expedite cardiac MRIs in one hospital and flag for potential sepsis cases in another; MIT engineers using it to study non verbal communication from kids with autism. All cool stuff but didn’t feel super earnest at times. A lot of it also went over my head but not mad I read it!
May 17, 2026
May 17, 2026
“AI For Good” is a well-written and engaging book that delves into the positive potential of artificial intelligence. The book is filled with intriguing stories and examples that demonstrate how AI can be harnessed for good, presenting a hopeful and optimistic outlook without being overly idealistic.
What I appreciated most is that it serves as a strong counterweight to many of the doom and gloom books about AI replacing people and destroying careers. Instead, it does a good job illustrating how AI can amplify human capability and creativity when used as a partner rather than a replacement. The examples throughout the book reinforce the idea that the most powerful outcomes will likely come from people and AI working together, each contributing different strengths.
That said, many of the stories stay at a fairly high level. At times it felt more like reading a collection of thoughtful long-form articles than a deeply immersive exploration of the topics. I often found myself wanting the author to go deeper into the experiences, decisions, and implications behind the stories. Still, a very worthwhile and timely read.
“AI For Good” is a well-written and engaging book that delves into the positive potential of artificial intelligence. The book is filled with intriguing stories and examples that demonstrate how AI can be harnessed for good, presenting a hopeful and optimistic outlook without being overly idealistic.
What I appreciated most is that it serves as a strong counterweight to many of the doom and gloom books about AI replacing people and destroying careers. Instead, it does a good job illustrating how AI can amplify human capability and creativity when used as a partner rather than a replacement. The examples throughout the book reinforce the idea that the most powerful outcomes will likely come from people and AI working together, each contributing different strengths.
That said, many of the stories stay at a fairly high level. At times it felt more like reading a collection of thoughtful long-form articles than a deeply immersive exploration of the topics. I often found myself wanting the author to go deeper into the experiences, decisions, and implications behind the stories. Still, a very worthwhile and timely read.
June 25, 2026
As the debate surrounding AI usage rages on, this book offers a few stories of those using AI to solve problems in our society. From differentiation in education settings to sepsis prevention and helping nonverbal children, it was interesting to see just how beneficial AI can be in the real world.
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May 26, 2026sometimes you have to dance with the devil
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The world today seems split between AI Maximalists who view the technology as the solution to all of the world’s problems and AI Doomers who are certain the spread of artificial intelligence will bring about a long-feared dystopia.
In AI for Good, Josh Tyrangiel tackles a middle ground by starting from the other side of the equation. Instead of “what can AI do,” he asks, “how can I solve this problem,” and finds that sometimes AI is the solution. This book isn’t a prescient look into the future but rather a sober look at how AI is solving today’s challenges. It captures the successes, but also the struggles, false starts, backtracking, and messiness of the practical application in high-stakes settings of technology that changes week to week.
Through a series of compelling stories from the military, government, education, healthcare, and research, we’re shown how AI can move the needle on intractable problems, but only if it’s applied by a committed group of humans who deeply understand the problem and know how to navigate the people, politics, and culture that make up our organizations.
Tyrangiel shows how AI helped Operation Warp Speed ensure COVID vaccines were delivered when and where they were needed, how Khan Academy and OpenAI struggled to incorporate chatbots into Khan’s learning platform, and how the Cleveland Clinic is using AI to enhance patient care. In each case, the technology turned out to be the easy part.
In many ways, this is an optimistic book. We see people, most of whom have no special training in technology or machine learning or large language models, find ways to plug AI into a larger ecosystem to help them with their lives’ work. But this is also a sober book. There’s no magic wand any of us can wave, no single prompt we can craft. There’s no shortcut to doing the hard work.
AI for Good is not a book for Maximalists or Doomers. They’ve already made up their minds. It’s a book for the rest of us who show up every day trying to move something forward and wondering whether this particular tool is worth our time. For that reader, and especially for those who lead or work within the large institutions where change is slow and politics are unforgiving, Tyrangiel has written something useful. He doesn't promise transformation. Instead, he offers evidence that progress is possible, and an honest account of what it costs.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book. All views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Beyond a free review copy of the book, I was not compensated for this review.
In AI for Good, Josh Tyrangiel tackles a middle ground by starting from the other side of the equation. Instead of “what can AI do,” he asks, “how can I solve this problem,” and finds that sometimes AI is the solution. This book isn’t a prescient look into the future but rather a sober look at how AI is solving today’s challenges. It captures the successes, but also the struggles, false starts, backtracking, and messiness of the practical application in high-stakes settings of technology that changes week to week.
Through a series of compelling stories from the military, government, education, healthcare, and research, we’re shown how AI can move the needle on intractable problems, but only if it’s applied by a committed group of humans who deeply understand the problem and know how to navigate the people, politics, and culture that make up our organizations.
Tyrangiel shows how AI helped Operation Warp Speed ensure COVID vaccines were delivered when and where they were needed, how Khan Academy and OpenAI struggled to incorporate chatbots into Khan’s learning platform, and how the Cleveland Clinic is using AI to enhance patient care. In each case, the technology turned out to be the easy part.
In many ways, this is an optimistic book. We see people, most of whom have no special training in technology or machine learning or large language models, find ways to plug AI into a larger ecosystem to help them with their lives’ work. But this is also a sober book. There’s no magic wand any of us can wave, no single prompt we can craft. There’s no shortcut to doing the hard work.
AI for Good is not a book for Maximalists or Doomers. They’ve already made up their minds. It’s a book for the rest of us who show up every day trying to move something forward and wondering whether this particular tool is worth our time. For that reader, and especially for those who lead or work within the large institutions where change is slow and politics are unforgiving, Tyrangiel has written something useful. He doesn't promise transformation. Instead, he offers evidence that progress is possible, and an honest account of what it costs.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book. All views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Beyond a free review copy of the book, I was not compensated for this review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
AI for Good is a series of stories that all circle the same idea: AI isn’t going to save us, but it’s already deciding things that matter.
Instead of speculating about the future, Tyrangiel stays in the present. The Operation Warp Speed story strips away the mystique and proves that AI is not magic.
The education chapters show how the Khan Academy rollout was not smooth, which as a parent, didn’t surprise me. Students dislike it (mine included), teachers lean too hard on it, and districts try to reshape it. In Newark, it starts working for the school system because people refuse to give up on it.
Not everything works. The LA chatbot story just… unravels. It shows the cost of relying too hard on the hope that labeling something AI solves the underlying problem.
I’d heard the Eliza story before, but it’s one of those things that sticks. A 1960s chatbot that just mirrored users’ words back to them still created emotional attachment, even when people knew it was a script. The surprise wasn’t the technology. It was us. Now we’re doing the same thing at scale through ChatGPT and Claude.
In the recycling story, the system technically works, but only because it nudges behavior in a very human way. Not by being smarter, but by being persuasive. The line between intelligence and influence is thin.
It keeps coming back to the idea that the right move is to engage, to get your hands on the tools and shape them. That sounds empowering. But it also assumes a level of access and agency that not everyone has. It acknowledges this, but moves on quickly.
It also avoids going too deep into the incentives behind AI, which feels like a choice. This is not a critique of the system. It’s a look at what people are doing inside it.
It’s readable and doesn’t try to impress you. It tries to show you what’s happening. The message is that AI will amplify whatever we point it at. AI is not going to fix broken systems. But it will make them more efficient, whether we like that or not.
Instead of speculating about the future, Tyrangiel stays in the present. The Operation Warp Speed story strips away the mystique and proves that AI is not magic.
The education chapters show how the Khan Academy rollout was not smooth, which as a parent, didn’t surprise me. Students dislike it (mine included), teachers lean too hard on it, and districts try to reshape it. In Newark, it starts working for the school system because people refuse to give up on it.
Not everything works. The LA chatbot story just… unravels. It shows the cost of relying too hard on the hope that labeling something AI solves the underlying problem.
I’d heard the Eliza story before, but it’s one of those things that sticks. A 1960s chatbot that just mirrored users’ words back to them still created emotional attachment, even when people knew it was a script. The surprise wasn’t the technology. It was us. Now we’re doing the same thing at scale through ChatGPT and Claude.
In the recycling story, the system technically works, but only because it nudges behavior in a very human way. Not by being smarter, but by being persuasive. The line between intelligence and influence is thin.
It keeps coming back to the idea that the right move is to engage, to get your hands on the tools and shape them. That sounds empowering. But it also assumes a level of access and agency that not everyone has. It acknowledges this, but moves on quickly.
It also avoids going too deep into the incentives behind AI, which feels like a choice. This is not a critique of the system. It’s a look at what people are doing inside it.
It’s readable and doesn’t try to impress you. It tries to show you what’s happening. The message is that AI will amplify whatever we point it at. AI is not going to fix broken systems. But it will make them more efficient, whether we like that or not.
May 27, 2026
There seems to be a genre of nonfiction writing consisting of anecdotal stories about smart humane diligent people who find ways to make a difficult system work. Think of books about teachers or about scientists with theories outside of the mainstream or stories about aid workers who find ways to bridge cultural divides. These stories are always uplifting, but in the service of storytelling they sometimes omit inconvenient facts.
This book tells feel good stories about people in diverse fields from logistics to teaching to medicine who use AI to deliver great results that help people and that always include a human in the loop in some critical way. It's just the kind of stuff that the Pope advocates in his recent encyclical on AI. The big problem, apart from the fact that stories like this always turn out to be not completely true, is that these are all situations that are essentially non-reproducible. Just give me 10,000 ethical geniuses working on tractable adequately funded socially positive projects, and I'll show you 1000 good outcomes that make good stories. But ethical geniuses don't grow on trees; nor do tractable adequately funded socially positive projects. There will always be a few of these and in the right circumstances AI can be an important part of the solution. So yeah, AI can do some good, so can social media, atomic energy and the military. But they also all involve massive dangers that can easily outweigh the good, so they all need to be watched carefully, regulated and channeled in positive directions.
This book tells feel good stories about people in diverse fields from logistics to teaching to medicine who use AI to deliver great results that help people and that always include a human in the loop in some critical way. It's just the kind of stuff that the Pope advocates in his recent encyclical on AI. The big problem, apart from the fact that stories like this always turn out to be not completely true, is that these are all situations that are essentially non-reproducible. Just give me 10,000 ethical geniuses working on tractable adequately funded socially positive projects, and I'll show you 1000 good outcomes that make good stories. But ethical geniuses don't grow on trees; nor do tractable adequately funded socially positive projects. There will always be a few of these and in the right circumstances AI can be an important part of the solution. So yeah, AI can do some good, so can social media, atomic energy and the military. But they also all involve massive dangers that can easily outweigh the good, so they all need to be watched carefully, regulated and channeled in positive directions.
June 9, 2026
Excellent contribution to the public discussion around AI and how it is likely to affect our lives and our world. Josh has given us all a gift with this book. He deliberately avoids perpetuating the hysteria on either side of the issue and instead, gives us -- in accessible, engaging, and at times chuckle out loud funny prose -- stories about real people who are using AI to improve their classroom, their hospital, and their government agency. The stories also highlight some key points and lessons, most notably that the promise of AI to do good relies on it being deployed by humans with domain expertise who deeply understand a particular problem and can envision how a machine can help address it. Humans are the heros of his stories, and current AI models are efficiency-enhancing, albeit imperfect, assistants. Well worth reading and considering!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
AI has people looking at the best and worst of what the future holds, but this book explains more of how it came to be, why it is the way it is and shows how it has learned how to help in many areas.
The most important thing I saw was how AI helped during the Covid crisis days. I never knew how slow bureaucracy would have been if AI had not been used to collect various diverse batches of info and make it useable. For all of us, it sped up location and distribution of supplies and vaccine to get it into the hands or arms of those who distributed it and those who needed it.
Content is dry at times, but factual. I'm glad I read it.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy. Honest opinions expressed here are my own and are freely given.
The most important thing I saw was how AI helped during the Covid crisis days. I never knew how slow bureaucracy would have been if AI had not been used to collect various diverse batches of info and make it useable. For all of us, it sped up location and distribution of supplies and vaccine to get it into the hands or arms of those who distributed it and those who needed it.
Content is dry at times, but factual. I'm glad I read it.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy. Honest opinions expressed here are my own and are freely given.
May 18, 2026
When was the last time you read non-fiction with passages more exquisitely crafted and evocative than most heralded novels?
“Buffington is in her early sixties, tiny, stylish, with shoulder-length hair the same shade of gold as the cross around her neck. When she parks her black Cadillac directly in front of a school - and enters in her black suit, black heels, and black Coach bag - the effect is like Johnny Cash arriving in Loretta Lynn's body.”
“Birx's pandemic tenure was not smooth. In fairness, I would rather dance the hora with a gun in my mouth than try to speak scientific truths while standing next to Donald Trump.”
This is an antidote to doomerism from Josh Tyrangiel, a skeptic who happens to be an epically talented storyteller.
“Buffington is in her early sixties, tiny, stylish, with shoulder-length hair the same shade of gold as the cross around her neck. When she parks her black Cadillac directly in front of a school - and enters in her black suit, black heels, and black Coach bag - the effect is like Johnny Cash arriving in Loretta Lynn's body.”
“Birx's pandemic tenure was not smooth. In fairness, I would rather dance the hora with a gun in my mouth than try to speak scientific truths while standing next to Donald Trump.”
This is an antidote to doomerism from Josh Tyrangiel, a skeptic who happens to be an epically talented storyteller.
May 19, 2026
Excellent book to introduce you to the capabilities of AI
If you haven’t read an AI book yet but you want to, then make it this one. Very readable, easy to read and understand, with very relevant uses for/of AI. There are great advantages for the human race if the power of AI could be harnessed for human good. Beware of the companies that are putting there AI with no relevant uses, they are after power. Be judicious about wielding this power.
If you haven’t read an AI book yet but you want to, then make it this one. Very readable, easy to read and understand, with very relevant uses for/of AI. There are great advantages for the human race if the power of AI could be harnessed for human good. Beware of the companies that are putting there AI with no relevant uses, they are after power. Be judicious about wielding this power.
June 25, 2026
I really wanted to like this book after seeing the interview of the author on ‘The Daily Show’. There are a couple insightful chapters of note. Overall I felt this book only spotlights the good that AI can do and has done, without acknowledging the awful things it can do and has done. Maybe that’s because the bad, could massively outweigh the good. Or because the people interviewed, would not like to acknowledge the bad or risk sacrificing their work.
May 25, 2026
Stories of what AI is capable of delivering and is already doing to improve our lives. If you want to understand this tool despite all the Chicken Littles chirping, “The sky is falling! “ give this book a try. The audio version was excellent.
June 21, 2026
Finally, a book with real stories about real people using AI to democratize education, treat common and rare diseases, and crush government bureaucracy applying AI in the most complicated, arcane processes and systems.
June 25, 2026
A feel-good book about AI in this moment. One for posterity, maybe. We’ll have to wait and see what comes out of these times to see if AI (read: those who wield it) is actually for good at the end of the day.
Want to Read
May 15, 2026Saw author on Late Show
May 24, 2026
I appreciate a grounded positive take on what AI can actually do for humanity.
May 31, 2026
this is AI and its tremendous uses for people who are afraid of AI. a great and easy read with explanations and real-life examples of AI in every day life.
June 8, 2026
Excellent read and great coverage of documented work where AI helped solve real problems for real people - not just corporations.
June 19, 2026
Hard for me to follow, still no understanding of what AI is and the technical talk not presented well.
June 24, 2026
I thought this was a good book which was presented in the form of several case studies, which made a case for all the good that can come of AI, including examples in education, medicine, government and more. Still, count me as a skeptic.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
As we often say: every cloud has a silver lining, and the same goes for AI, which is neutral in and of itself and, like everything else, depends on how it is used. In this case, the author highlights several examples to demonstrate that, when used to benefit people rather than replace them, AI can only be useful (after plenty of trials and errors, of course). An interesting book that, for once, doesn’t side with the usual doomsayers or accelerationists, but argues that we should all be part of Team Human—precisely to improve our lives, not to complicate them.
Come diciamo spesso in Italia: non tutto il male viene per nuocere e lo stesso vale per l'IA che in se stessa é neutrale e come tutte le cose, dipende dall'uso che se ne fa. In questo caso l'autore illustra alcuni casi dai quali prende lo spunto per dimostrare che, se usata a favore della gente e non per sostituirla non puó che essere utile (dopo parecchi trials and errors naturalmente). Un libro interessante che per una volta non prende le parti dei soliti apocalittici o degli accelerazionisti, ma stabilisce che dovremmo fare tutti parte del Team Human, proprio per migliorarci la vita e non per complicarcela.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
Come diciamo spesso in Italia: non tutto il male viene per nuocere e lo stesso vale per l'IA che in se stessa é neutrale e come tutte le cose, dipende dall'uso che se ne fa. In questo caso l'autore illustra alcuni casi dai quali prende lo spunto per dimostrare che, se usata a favore della gente e non per sostituirla non puó che essere utile (dopo parecchi trials and errors naturalmente). Un libro interessante che per una volta non prende le parti dei soliti apocalittici o degli accelerazionisti, ma stabilisce che dovremmo fare tutti parte del Team Human, proprio per migliorarci la vita e non per complicarcela.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
June 24, 2026
This book is a good reminder that innovation can be used for good and there’s more than just AI slop coming out of this new wave.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews