All stories
Every verified story in the Good in Progress library, in one place: people using AI for good, checked against primary sources.
- Local SpotlightArt And Culture
The radio station that decided te reo Māori was worth building for
Kaitāia, Northland, New Zealand · Peter-Lucas Jones
When global speech AI had no room for their language, a small radio station in Kaitāia built its own, and made sure the data stayed in Māori hands.
- Local SpotlightAgriculture
Kingsley Jasi didn't wait for an extension officer. He sent a photo instead.
Chiradzulu, Malawi · Kingsley Jasi, Alifosina Mtseteka
With roughly one agricultural extension officer for every 3,000 farmers in Malawi, a WhatsApp chatbot in Chichewa answered the question no one was coming to answer.
- Social ImpactAgriculture
David Hughes put the expert in the phone farmers already had
Kenya / Tanzania (built at Penn State, USA) · David Hughes
When cassava disease outran the number of trained experts who could diagnose it, a Penn State professor decided the smartphone already in farmers' hands was the delivery system.
- Org SpotlightWork And Craft
The 8,500 IKEA workers who became design advisers instead of redundancies
Global (Ingka Group; program 2021-2023)
When its chatbot Billie took over routine questions, IKEA's parent company retrained an entire call center function rather than cut it, an honestly scoped look at what that actually took.
- BreakthroughEnvironment
Racing to Read the Rainforest's Library Before It Burns
Barro Colorado Island, Panama; expanding to Madre de Dios, Peru · Yves Basset, David Rolnick, Maxim Larrivée
The forest is the library and every unnamed insect is an unread book. On a Panama island, a 17-year count meets a closing funding window, and a new set of eyes reads faster than time runs out.
Filed under one of six lenses: Ordinary People, Social Impact, Breakthrough, Local Spotlight, Adaptation, Org Spotlight. Domains span Art And Culture, Agriculture, Work And Craft, Environment.