Iowa State University faculty-student team develops website for AI tools

Iowa State University faculty and students who have spent their time diving into the incredibly fast-paced world of artificial intelligence tools turned their efforts to keep up with the latest news into a website they hope helps others do the same.

ISU computer science professor Wei Le and a team of graduate students have already seen more than 150,000 visits to Todaysai.ai, a website the group created and maintains to serve as a hub for news on new AI tools as they launch and receive updates and for educational resources on how to run certain programs.

Le and her students first came up with the idea while trying to keep pace with the day-to-day changes in AI tool development, she said, from new and better programs being released to established resources expanding into new areas. It would also be helpful for other classes touching on AI, they figured, as the technology makes its way further into academic spaces.

Each week in Le’s advanced AI topics course she and students would spend around half an hour discussing the newest tools and their capabilities, which computer science Ph.D. student Anwar Zahid said was his favorite part of the class.

“We actually found there’s a need for students to really catch up (on) what’s happening today in AI world, and we also noticed that there are lots of news out there every day,” Le said. “However, we didn’t find a place where we can integrate all the current AI tools and the knowledge in one place, so this is where we think we should build that website.”

Zahid said he was excited to hear the news from Le, and the group put their own personal time — and sometimes their own money — into creating and maintaining the site. Also included on the site is a section housing video demonstrations of how to use certain AI products for different needs, something Le is hoping to expand with additional resources from product developers and user requests.

Since the site launched in May, it states it’s seen more than 151,000 visitors.

“The goal here is to put all the most recent AI tools into one place, and we can organize them very well and make it accessible to the general public,” Le said. “We also hope this is a trustable website.”

The group utilizes AI in gathering relevant information and updating the website on a consistent schedule, with students or Le ensuring the accuracy of information before it’s live. They also designed the site so it’s easy for anyone to access and use, with demos, illustrations and descriptions available for different tools whenever possible.

As demand for AI programs increases throughout public spaces, not just academic and technological ones, Le said she wants the website to be a place where people go to learn about the latest innovations in financial software, personal assistance, coding tools and other applications.

The students themselves, as well as their peers and teaching assistants for other courses, are using the site in their own daily lives and work. Md Mahbubur Rahman, another Ph.D. student involved with the site, said he’s used it to check out new tools as they come out and introduce them to his students.

Teaching assistants have been especially thankful for the demos page, as they can show the videos to their students rather than trying to explain how different tools work.

With the site up and running, Le said she’s applying for grants and looking for collaboration opportunities to expand the site more and give the students working with her more support. Le said she hopes the site can help create a learning community around AI, where users and developers can interact and get the newest information as it comes out.

“I hope this is a platform that bridges the builders of AI and also the user of AI,” Le said.