"Show-Me AI" is a University of Missouri initiative to integrate artificial intelligence into the teaching and learning process by providing AI tools to both faculty and students for day-to-day educational tasks. This use of AI goes far beyond ‘brainstorming’ or ‘organizing your notes’; this initiative intends to make the presence of AI in our education practically unavoidable. “Show-Me AI” on the MU website (which can be found here) states that, amongst its goals, it would like students to use it for “content questions” and “receiving assignment feedback,” which not only infringes on the professors’ role in the classroom but will completely remove the incentive to engage with their peers and instructors. The average yearly tuition for in-state students is $28,000, which is money we pay to be taught by world-class scholars, not an AI chatbot. But just because you ask AI a content question doesn't mean it will give you an accurate answer. Large language models, such as ChatGPT, are prone to ‘hallucination,’ which occurs when the reality of the input is disregarded in favor of misleading or false information generated by their algorithm. There is also the question of academic integrity. According to an article published in the Columbia Missourian, when confronted with the issue of academic dishonesty, the chair of Mizzou’s AI Steering Committee dismissed it. Additionally, training these AI models requires a staggering amount of electricity and results in increased carbon dioxide emissions. Beyond the electricity requirements, a lot of water is required to cool these systems, which can strain the local water supply and disrupt ecosystems. When confronted with concerns about the impact AI has on the environment, their solution was to offer a "more sustainable alternative", DeepSeek. Which—to train— is estimated to have emitted greenhouse gases equivalent to running approximately 193 cars on the road for a year, and according to an article in the Journal of Political Inquiry, chatting with ChatGPT and Deep Seek’s app both consume the same amount of energy: about three watt-hours per response (Read about it here).  This demonstrates that they are not concerned with our quality of education or the concerns of the MU community, but are instead taking advantage of a lucrative industry, which could rake in millions for the university in industry collaborations. The Mizzou administration has made the unilateral decision to move forward with this initiative without consulting the student body, effectively silencing those who will be most affected. An administration making sweeping decisions like this without consulting its students is an administration acting in its own self-interest. Implementation is set to occur at the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year, which is why we must act now.

What we want:

• A student advisory committee dedicated to AI-related issues
• The prohibition of AI-generated syllabi, assignments, assignment feedback, exams, and grades
• Administrative effort to prevent academic dishonesty enabled by AI
• Most of all, a complete suspension of "Show-Me AI" progress until environmentally sustainable alternatives can be developed  

We are a diverse student body that deserves a high-quality and human-centered education provided by a school that cares for the future of our planet. Please sign and make your voice heard!