Josh Tyrangiel with Ashlee Vance

Is AI dragging us into a utopian future or dragging us toward existential ruin? Josh Tyrangiel of The Atlantic makes the case for how artificial intelligence, in itself a neutral tool, can be used for good in the here and now.

About the Book

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 depended on AI’s practical ability to synthesize and standardize vast amounts of logistical data. AI wasn’t the hero of the story, but it was the tool that helped real people get things done.

This book follows those people, who make up a kind of AI counterculture. AI for Good explores the quiet revolution in government services, medicine, education, and human connection—places where AI is being used to amplify human judgment, rather than replace it. Tyrangiel 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.

About the Speakers

Josh Tyrangiel is a writer for The Atlantic. He was previously the editor of Bloomberg Businessweek and chief content officer for Bloomberg Media. A twelve-time Emmy and Peabody Award–winning producer, he created Vice News Tonight on HBO and has produced numerous feature-length documentaries for HBO, Netflix, and Apple TV.

Ashlee Vance is a journalist, author, and filmmaker whose books include the definitive Elon Musk biography and best-selling When the Heavens Went on Sale, an account of the private space revolution. He has written for Bloomberg Businessweek and the New York Times and produced documentary films for HBO and Netflix, exploring the people and ideas reshaping science and technology. He now runs Core Memory, a media company dedicated to bringing those stories to new audiences.

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