By the 2026 academic year, the University of Missouri AI Standing Committee hopes to introduce Show-Me AI, a software that will provide students and instructors access to several generative AI tools, including ChatGPT. Show-Me AI is a walled garden tool, storing and encrypting material input by users in private servers, which allows faculty to upload students’ work for grading or AI tutor development without violating student intellectual property law.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a federal law protecting students’ rights to control the release of their educational records, which includes files or intellectual property created by or pertaining to the student in any way. Kevin Brown, chair of the AI standing committee, explained that Show-Me AI will also allow students to input their ideas and work into Show-Me AI without feeding into a generative AI model.
“When people use free tools on the internet, and they put in their own work, they are essentially handing over that work to help train the model and to be part of the property of that company,” Brown said.
Justin Palozola, a senior technology resource manager and a leader on the Show-Me AI team, explained that when users input a prompt into a generative AI platform such as ChatGPT, that data is then sent to ChatGPT’s servers and used to train the AI model. According to Palozola, data input through Show-Me AI’s software will instead be protected through contracts with Amazon Web Services.
“The only people that have access — and it wouldn’t even be us on the admin team or anything — it would simply be whoever created that assistant and then whoever they shared that with,” Palozola said.
The Show-Me Artificial Intelligence home-screen on Thursday, Dec. 4 where users can use a dropdown menu to select from a list of nine large language models. Show-Me AI is a byproduct of Mizzou’s Artificial Intelligence Standing Committee and includes three Claude models, two Gemini models, three ChatGPT models and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct. On the left, users may design their own AI assistants or create their own custom instructions.
The Show-Me AI team hopes instructors will eventually be able to use the software to develop custom teaching assistants or tutors from the material of individual classes. The software will be introduced in waves to about 1,000 registered pilot users.
The code used to develop the software is open-sourced and was originally developed by Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt’s name for the software is Amplify, which Mizzou renamed to Show-Me AI.
Thus, as Vanderbilt releases updates to Amplify, Mizzou is also able to apply those updates to Show-Me AI.
The first wave of approximately 55 pilot users, which consisted mainly of faculty with AI experience, gained access to the software in September. The second wave, which consisted of faculty members planning to use Show-Me AI in their spring semester classes, was set to gain access once version 8 of Amplify was released.
The Show-Me AI team expected the upgrade by the end of October or early November, but it did not occur until the week before Thanksgiving. The existing users gained access on Nov. 20, and the orientation for the new wave of users took place on Nov. 25.
Student pilot users will gain access in January. Pilot users will be able to share their feedback through discussion groups, surveys and monthly virtual meetings.
As Show-Me AI makes an appearance in classes, Mizzou’s administration also intends to introduce an AI certificate program in the spring 2026 semester.
There will be four required classes to earn the certificate: AI Essentials, Writing with AI, AI Design Studio and an elective AI course. These first two courses are currently being offered as topic classes and will be offered simultaneously during the spring semester. However, Brown said the other two courses will only be offered if enough students enroll in the first two classes.
The College of Engineering and College of Arts and Science will facilitate this program, but students of any major can get the certificate. According to Brown, there will be creative opportunities for students completing the certificate who are interested in the arts.
Brown said that students will have a special opportunity to work in a collaborative environment, gaining both engineering and humanistic perspectives through the AI program.
“We’re realizing that AI works best when it’s collaborative and not just doing things for you,” Brown said.
