The University of Missouri has been gathering data about its Show-Me AI initiative since it piloted the program in September 2025. A main priority of the program is ensuring students and faculty have equal access to AI tools. Justin Palozola manages learning software for Mizzou, and he said they are fostering a more advanced AI space for users.
"It also creates that kind of creative environment where the faculty member and even the students are available to create lots of different possibilities that they wouldn't be able to, otherwise, in a free ChatGPT version," Palozola said.
While there are benefits to having cheaper access to more advanced AI tools, there are still students who are skeptical of the program and remain heavily opposed to AI. Mizzou professor and chair of the AI Standing Committee Kevin Brown said they still want to give students the autonomy to choose if they want to use AI.
"We realize that people have different preferences, and so we're working on that to allow our students to have that individual freedom," Brown said.
Palozola clarified where inputted data goes when students or faculty use the AI tools.
Because Mizzou has created a "Walled Garden" for its AI systems, none of the data leaves the university's databases. Therefore, student work is not training any of the large language models (LLM) being used by the greater public, such as ChatGPT.
Brown emphasized the importance of AI education and the reality of the workforce that students will be entering. Many companies are incorporating more AI into their workflows, and students are preparing for this new era of work.
"We need to have that AI literacy," Brown said. "It really is a new kind of literacy, and we want to prepare our students to meet that demand."
Brown said the committee overseeing Show-Me AI has already seen the benefits of the AI tools. Professors are developing their own AI assistants for their classes, for example.
"What's great about Show-Me AI is with the amount of control that you have over the assistants and the assignments that you can create," Brown said. "You can create that environment that does not allow [students] to cheat."
The Show-Me AI team hopes to fully launch the program by the 2026-27 school year and are continuing to add more AI tools. Palozola said they are also remaining conscious about their environmental impact and have actively made an effort to implement more sustainable AI tools.
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