Celebrating Innovation: The 2024 Good Tech Awards and Their Impact on Humanity

In a year where the tech industry experienced rapid evolution and fierce competition, 2024 stood out as a transformative time for technological advancement. With significant strides in artificial intelligence (A.I.), groundbreaking products such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude received crucial updates, prompting substantial investments aimed at creating more advanced models. Notably, the researchers behind Google’s AlphaFold, involved in extraordinary protein research, were honored this year with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, highlighting the serious implications of A.I. in advancing scientific understanding.

However, the advancements in A.I. were not the sole narrative emerging from Silicon Valley. The tech landscape was rife with conflicts as companies wrestled with regulatory bodies and faced off against government actions. Additionally, a pronounced “founder mode” trend saw many tech executives indulging in micromanagement, shifting focus back on themselves amid the industry turmoil. As the presidential election heated up, a burgeoning “tech right” seemed to coalesce around Donald J. Trump’s campaign, revealing the complex interplay between the tech world and political forces.

In the spirit of recognizing the positive contributions that technology can provide, I have once again curated a list of projects that exemplify the values of what I call “good tech.” My criteria for selecting honorees may be vague and subjective; however, this annual tradition serves as both a personal reflection and a tribute to innovators who are making strides for the common good, inspiring their peers and the next generation of technologists.

2024 Good Tech Award Recipients:

Epoch AI: Empowering Insight on the A.I. Boom