awesome-good-ai: A Curated List of AI Projects Focused on Ethics and Public Good

awesome-good-ai is a community-driven project list maintained by Luca Cerina on GitHub. It focuses on collecting AI projects that truly serve human well-being rather than chasing commercial interests or hype, covering multiple public good areas such as algorithm auditing, AI literacy education, wildlife conservation, and endangered language protection. The project selection criteria are strict, reflecting deep thinking on AI ethics.

While AI technology is developing rapidly, there are issues such as monopoly by tech giants, exploitation of cheap labor, high energy consumption of large models, and increasing algorithmic bias. The awesome-good-ai list was created to counter these negative trends, providing a platform to showcase AI projects dedicated to human well-being. Its strict selection criteria reflect a firm stance on AI ethics.

Encouraged Features for Inclusion: Small independent projects (community innovation), respect for labor rights (rejecting exploitation of cheap labor), environmental friendliness (responsible use of energy and water resources), prevention of bias and injustice (reducing algorithmic bias, protecting local cultures), respect for data rights (valuing copyright, voluntary participation).

Explicitly Rejected Types: Projects using AI agents/model distillation technology from large tech companies, projects contributing AI-generated PR or coding LLMs.

Research Institutions and Companies: Algorithm Audit (algorithm auditing), Black in AI (increasing representation of Black practitioners), DAIR (countering tech company influence), Montreal AI Ethics Institute (providing action tools), FairlyTrained (identifying fairly trained companies);

AI Literacy and Communication: Popularizing AI knowledge and improving public literacy;

Application Areas: WildMe (wildlife conservation), Te Hiku Media (Māori language protection), Lesan (low-resource language translation).

The value of awesome-good-ai lies in proposing a framework for AI development: 1. Technology should serve people, not just pursue performance; 2. Ethics are a must in all stages of AI development; 3. Community power fills the needs ignored by tech companies; 4. Diversity (endangered languages, minority participation, etc.) is a source of innovation.

This list showcases a more ethical, inclusive, and sustainable path for AI development. For developers: it provides directions for learning and contribution; for policymakers: it reflects public expectations for AI ethics; for ordinary users: it helps understand the complex issues behind AI. It is recommended that users concerned about the future of AI ethics browse the list to learn about these projects serving human well-being.