The Missouri Humanities Council (MHC) has awarded a grant of $15,000 to the College of Arts and Humanities in support of the project entitled “CivicAI: Empowering Civic Engagement through Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.”
The MHC is the only statewide agency in Missouri devoted exclusively to humanities education for citizens of all ages. It has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities since 1971. This grant will support a groundbreaking initiative designed to allow Missouri citizens to leverage human-centered AI to fuel innovative projects aimed at increasing AI competency, promoting democratic values, and facilitating civic engagement.
In collaboration with community partners, the first stage of the CivicAI initiative focuses on the development and training of a custom agentic AI. This on-demand guide will equip Missouri citizens with practical tools, ethical mindset, and historical perspective on community involvement in a technologically complex time. CivicAI will answer questions about the legislative process, mission of government agencies, how to vote or run for office, as well as Missouri’s political history.
In stage two, high school and college teams will participate in a Change the World Hackathon where they will utilize the newly developed CivicAI platform to create actionable civic engagement plans addressing specific social issues. The team with the best proposal will receive funds to implement and evaluate their plans.
The final stage of the initiative involves sharing CivicAI with the broader community. The grant recipients will develop curriculum and teaching guides to integrate CivicAI in middle and high school classrooms. In addition, we will develop mini-labs throughout the community to educate Missouri Citizens to use this new platform to jump start their public participation. Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Barbara Hosto-Marti said, “I am grateful for the opportunity to demystify AI and develop a reliable tool that will make it easier for people to navigate the often complex political and policy landscape, thereby continuing a long history of civic engagement into the digital age.”
Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities Dr. Kathi Vosevich points out that “this is an incredible honor for the college. Our Human-Centered AI programs are differentiated in that they help students gain practical skills in the ethical use of AI—and we’re excited to
apply our expertise to civic engagement because we want our students not only to do well, but also to do good.”
