AI Policy

Updated June 2026

The Show-Me Institute’s researchers, scholars, writers, and editors are behind everything we publish. AI tools support their work. They do not replace it.

Editorial use of AI

We use AI tools to assist with technical and editorial workflow tasks, including:

· Identifying topics and entities (people, organizations, places, concepts) in our drafts to support accurate categorization and indexing

· Generating suggested headlines and meta descriptions for editor review

· Building structured data (schema markup) that helps search engines and other systems understand our content

The primary editorial AI tool we use is TopicalBoost, a plugin built specifically for publishers by Tallest Tree Digital. TopicalBoost analyzes drafts using natural language processing and offers AI-generated metadata suggestions.

Our writers and editors may use AI tools in the ordinary course of their work to refine prose, pressure-test arguments, transcribe interviews, or check facts against source material. We treat these tools the way we treat any other research or editing aid. All facts, statistics, quotes, and citations are verified by staff regardless of source.

The judgment, the analysis, and the conclusions remain the responsibility of the human author and the editors who review the piece. We do not publish AI-generated commentary or research presented as the work of a Show-Me Institute author.

Human review

Every piece of AI-assisted output goes through human editorial review before it appears on our site or in our publications. AI does not publish anything on its own.

Transparency

If our use of AI changes meaningfully, or if we begin to use AI in ways that affect what readers see and read, we will update this page.