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How everyone and anyone can use AI for good
There are big hitters in the AI space that use this tech for humanitarian and environmental good—from start-ups fighting climate change to voice recognition experts diagnosing diseases. But you don't need to be backed by AWS or Microsoft to do good. In part two of this series, we dive into how anyone can use AI for good.
February 12, 2026
How everyone and anyone can use AI for good
There are big hitters in the AI space that use this tech for humanitarian and environmental good—from start-ups fighting climate change to voice recognition experts diagnosing diseases. But you don't need to be backed by AWS or Microsoft to do good. In part two of this series, we dive into how anyone can use AI for good.
The battle for good in a world of bad
I won’t be a denialist and say that AI has not aided the deterioration of human rights in many places (including the US). But I’ll return to my argument from the last part of this series: what if we could do enough good to make a dent in the bad? I’d argue that the work of AWS’s Compute for Climate Fellows and Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab are beginning to make just that dent—and now, faster than ever.
Much of my conversation with Kleiner Perkin’s Ryan Panchadsaram was on this ongoing battle between do-goodery and do-baddery, which plagues every part of our society—from how we run our governments to the corporations we give our money to and even the way the specific communities we live in function. “We have to find the balance of powering ahead responsibly,” he said. “That’s always been the test with technology.”
We agreed that this balance is a precarious one, always on the verge of tipping towards a future with bleak outcomes for humanity: “I think it's important to push forward on progress in the ways that help us live healthier, learn more, and get work done in meaningful ways so you can spend time with family and loved ones.”
But a world of “AI for optimists” (as Panchadsaram and I themed our conversation) cannot exist without an acute awareness of the ways AI is also being misused. “You have to] be really aware of what you could call the negative things that can happen from it,” he explained. “The deep demand for energy and water is upsetting the dynamic in lots of communities. And the application of [AI in the defense space…when used for good it protects Americans and keeps our cities safe, but when used for bad it starts to cross the line.”
Crossing that line means the violation of basic human rights and the devaluation of human lives, as has been seen recently in communities around the world. “AI can be a tool that helps create a better relationship between citizens and services [like healthcare and aid]. But also,” Panchadsaram cautions, “the flip can happen too…we have to make sure that the AI is being used in a way that's actually helping you and I and not being used in a way to discriminate.”
But Panchadsaram believes that the action of doing good will actually help us identify and fight against the unethical or harmful actions of others. “If you can prove that so much good can happen, you can easily draw on the other side of what bad looks like. Then you can stop that from happening,” he said about why creating net-good with AI is so important.
And creating net-good with AI is not something that only those with funding from AWS or Microsoft can do. Being able to prevent bad by doing good can be extended to how and when we use AI tools in our everyday lives. “If you don't try these [AI] tools, you are missing out on seeing how they could improve the way you work, the way you plan, the way you do things. But also, you miss out on being able to critique them, to engage with them, to help shape them.” Panchadsaram believes being part of the conversation on AI is fundamental in the battle between do-goodery and do-baddery. “This field changes every week, every month. The AI that you and I experienced a year ago was so radically different from today,” he says, which is why it’s important to, in his words, “vocalize critiques [so they] can be applied in the moment.”
This piece of advice from Panchadsaram—that you can do good just by being an active part of the conversation—also applies to addressing the climate crisis: “As employees of these [large] companies or as consumers, we have to be pushing them to still have bold climate commitments because without it, they're just going to think of it as an afterthought.”
Ultimately, Panchadsaram is an advocate for mindful engagement with our society, including AI. When we are engaged, we can be loudly critical of the bad and loudly supportive of the good, adding to the power of our collective voices in the discourse about how we run our governments, our companies, our communities, and our technology—all which will define the future of our world.
How you and I can use AI for good
In my conversation with Panchadsaram, I was further validated in my belief that one of the most dangerous things that humans can become is apathetic. Part of my inspiration for this piece came from a conversation with my boss at Stack Overflow, Matt Trocchio. While brainstorming blog ideas together, he asked me a simple but heady question: If AI is meant to increase our productivity, make us more efficient, and replace some of us at work, what is it in service to? Will we have four-day work weeks? Or shorter workdays? Will people get to take more vacations? Spend more time with their families? What is it all for?
My first thought during my conversation with Matt was, “No, none of those things will happen. This whole thing is for shareholder value.” And while that kind of apathy and disillusionment is common in my generation—and I think somewhat our prerogative—nihilism is not really my style. It’s why I wanted to figure out what it would look like for AI to be for good.
Even as I started to write this piece, I had my doubts there would be much I could talk about that could balance out all of the negatives that have come out of AI (and really, technology as a whole). But then I remembered Holden Karau and FightHealthInsurance.
While in my undergrad, I had a long conversation with my sociology professor, Dr. Mi Kyung Kim. During our chat, I asked why she thought we have such huge swings between conservatism and liberalism in the United States (I took this class in April of 2020, so you can probably guess why the topic came up). She pointed me to a few studies and think pieces on it, but what I remember most from that discussion was what she said at the end: that many people think society naturally becomes more progressive over time, but that’s incorrect—and frankly, privileged—thinking. People fought long and hard for us to be where we are today and to be afforded the rights we take for granted. And even now, many people are fighting for a continuance of those rights—or, for some people, to even get them in the first place. It's actually in the interest of the powerful for things to stay the same, and that’s why it seems like history always repeats itself. It is not natural for society to move towards freedom and progress—the only way to push it forward is for us to fight our way there.
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