AI
for Good.
A community of AI builders who ship tools for NGOs in Southeast Asia.
We build open-source software, create AI literacy content, and keep everything free.
Why this exists
The Problem
AI is the most transformative technology in human history. The systems around it are built to reward shareholders — not society.
The organizations that could most use AI are the ones no company will build for. Food banks, refugee legal aid clinics, rural schools. They are not paying customers.
AI is being built to maximize returns for shareholders. Problems that don't generate revenue stay unsolved.
Our response
Build What the Market Won't
We build and fund projects the market won't touch. If no company will ship it, we will.
Put AI in the Hands of NGOs
AI lets one volunteer build what used to take a team. We show NGOs what's possible, match them with builders, and ship the tool together.
Keep Everything Open
AI was trained on what humanity wrote. We publish everything as MIT-licensed code. The next builder starts where we left off, not from scratch.
THE CASE FOR PUBLIC-INTEREST AI
AI is concentrating power.
All of this is already happening. The data is from 2024 and 2025.
What is happening right now
AI compute is owned by five companies
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle control 71% of the world's cumulative AI compute, up from 63% eighteen months earlier. Any NGO or government that needs AI pays rent to this oligopoly.
Epoch AI, 2025
US gets 23× more AI investment than China
US private AI investment reached $285.9 billion in 2025. Southeast Asia received a rounding error. The AI frontier is concentrated in a handful of zip codes in San Francisco and Seattle. Everywhere else is structurally excluded.
Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index
Premium AI is widening the opportunity gap
Free-tier AI is not the same product as paid. Workers, students, and founders with access to Claude Max or GPT-4 get near-expert tutoring, legal drafting, code review, and business strategy on demand. Those on the free tier get a weaker model with tighter limits. The gap compounds: better AI means better grades, stronger job applications, faster businesses. High-income workers are already 21 percentage points more likely to use AI than low-income workers.
OECD 2026; Pew Research 2025
The most powerful AI systems are getting less transparent
The most capable AI systems are becoming less auditable as they become more powerful. Stanford HAI's Foundation Model Transparency Index dropped from 58 to 40 in a single year. Power is concentrating. The public's ability to scrutinize it is shrinking.
Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index
What comes next
Southeast Asia's infrastructure gap becomes permanent
Rural areas across Southeast Asia average 55% internet penetration versus 90% in major cities. Only 30% of rural schools have reliable high-speed internet versus 85% of urban schools. AI tools designed for the connected and English-literate will deepen these gaps unless communities actively counter them. The projected $1 trillion AI GDP boost to the region by 2030 will go to those already connected.
Tech Collective SEA, 2025
AI is used on communities, not by them
The AI Now Institute's 2025 report is direct: today's AI is not just being used by us. It is being used on us. Facial recognition systems misidentify Black and Asian faces 10 to 100 times more often than white faces. Automated hiring filters out applicants whose resumes do not match patterns from existing employees. The communities with the least power have the least recourse.
AI Now Institute 2025; MIT Sloan
NGOs are locked out of tools they cannot afford
Governments and NGOs that want AI will buy from vendors with a sales team. Those vendors will not build for a Malaysian food bank or a Philippine refugee legal aid clinic. They will sell a generic product at enterprise pricing. The organizations serving the most vulnerable people will be the last to benefit.
What we can still build
Open infrastructure anyone can use
The OECD and the UN both concluded in 2024 that core AI components should be governed as public commons: open, interoperable, auditable. The policy consensus exists. Open-source communities building MIT-licensed tools for NGOs are not ahead of their time. They are ahead of most governments in actually doing it.
OECD.AI 2025; UN 2024
A public record of the AI divide
Data that does not exist cannot drive policy. We built the AI Adoption by Country API because no single source tracked this across 16 countries in a usable format. That data is now free. Any researcher, journalist, or NGO can use it. This is what public-interest AI infrastructure looks like in practice.
AI literacy in the languages that need it most
Hugging Face grew from 160,000 to 1.57 million generative AI model repositories in two years. 46% of Fortune 500 leaders prefer open models. The technology is there. What is missing is content explaining it in the languages of the people most affected by it. That content is what this community builds.
Mozilla Foundation, 2024
What we build
Three things: community sessions, AI literacy content, and open-source projects.
Community
Biweekly sessions where builders meet NGOs, scope real problems, and form teams. We show up, pair with a real org, and ship.
Join as Volunteer Committee →
Advocacy
Short-form videos, talks, blogs, and infographics on AI safety and public-interest AI. In English and Bahasa Malaysia. 5M+ views.
View Content →
Open Source Projects
Open-source projects built for real NGO problems. Each one ships a dataset, API, or template so the next builder starts where we left off.
Browse Projects →Community
Biweekly sessions connecting builders to NGOs and social impact orgs. Part workshop, part co-working, part open hangout. We form teams, match real needs to builders, and ship projects that matter.
Join as Volunteer Committee →
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Build with AI
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AI Tinkerers
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AI Hackerdorm
Student-first community hosting regular builder sessions with project showcases and mentorship.
AI SEA
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Rakan Tutor
Free AI programs for ASEAN youth through hands-on workshops and a digital learning platform.
Cursor Malaysia
The Cursor community for Malaysia, hosting hackathons, meetups, and workshops.
CoderPuffs
A women-first initiative where we learn coding and AI while cafe-hopping together.
500 AI Residency
An AI residency program focused on rapid building and shipping, bringing together builders to create and scale AI projects.
Advocacy
Educational content making AI accessible to everyone.
Short-form Videos
Making AI concepts accessible in 60 seconds. AI safety, open source, and tech for good explained for everyone.
Articles & Guides
Technical tutorials, AI safety guides, and thought pieces on responsible AI. Published in English and Bahasa Malaysia.
Infographics & Data
Visual explainers on AI adoption, safety, and impact. Open data visualizations anyone can share and build on.
Featured Videos
@aiforgood.my →Coming Soon
Talks & Speaking
20+ speaking engagements at meetups, conferences, and government briefings including Malaysia's Foreign Affairs Ministry (IDFR) and Yayasan Peneraju. Featured on Bernama TV, RTM TV1, Era.fm, and Kosmo.
Invite us to speak — Contact us
Projects
Open-source tools for social impact
AI Adoption by Country
Interactive visualization + open data API tracking AI adoption across 16 countries. From UAE at 64% to Nigeria at 7%. Data sourced from Microsoft, Stanford HAI, OECD, and 11 other authoritative sources.
Bookshelf
Turn your reading library into a beautiful shareable poster. Import from Goodreads or Hardcover, pick a visualization style, and download. Built on World Book Day to raise awareness for global literacy — 773 million adults cannot read.
Pocket of Pink
Youth education nonprofit — we helped ship their website in a single day using AI.
Visit Website →
Local Open Source Projects
MyMP
Track Malaysian Members of Parliament — voting records, attendance, and more.
mymp.org.my →
Sedekah.je
Open-source donation directory connecting donors to verified causes across Malaysia.
sedekah.je →
Lepak Masjid
Find mosques, prayer times, and community events near you.
lepakmasjid.app →
Pasar Malam
Night market directory mapping locations and schedules across Malaysia.
pasarmalam.app →Non-affiliated local projects building for social good
Your Project Here
Have an open-source AI project for social good? We want to feature it.
Submit a Project →Shared Resources
Reusable datasets, APIs, and templates from community projects. Coming soon.
In ProgressJoin the Movement
We're looking for builders, advocates, organizers, and researchers who want to use their skills for social good.
Builder
Contribute code to open-source projects. Ship tools that help real orgs.
Advocate
Create content, translate materials, speak at events, spread the word.
Organizer
Host meetups or run the day-to-day: Discord, events, posters, logistics.
Researcher
Produce data and analysis on AI adoption, NGO digital readiness, and public-sector AI in SEA.