UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State is making leading AI models available to all faculty and staff through AI Studio, the University's enterprise generative AI platform, beginning April 24. AI Studio is available at no cost to all Penn State employees. The launch is paired with the release of AI Essentials at Penn State, a foundational AI literacy course, reflecting the University's commitment to providing both AI tools and the training needed to use them responsibly and effectively. A student pilot will run this summer, with a full rollout to students expected by fall 2026.
AI Studio provides access to models from OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini) in a single interface, allowing users to choose the best model for their task. The platform supports research, teaching, administrative work and creative projects.
Piloted this spring
More than 1,000 faculty and staff used AI Studio during a pilot phase that began in March. Of the several hundred participants who completed the pilot survey, more than 85% said they would use AI Studio again, and the most common uses were writing and editing, research, and analyzing or summarizing information.
A student pilot will run during Summer Session II, with a full rollout to all students at all campuses expected this fall. The phased approach gives faculty time to build familiarity with AI Studio and incorporate it into their courses before students gain access.
“We selected AI Studio to join our portfolio of enterprise services to empower every member of our community to unlock new possibilities in their learning, teaching and work,” said David Horton, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer. “We aimed to strike the right balance of service readiness with speed and agility for deployment. We’re now eager to offer the service to all faculty and staff, while aligning it with a literacy program that provides guidance and support for students, faculty and staff to engage thoughtfully, ethically and confidently.”
Pilot participants described using AI Studio to accelerate research projects, refactor software code, build interactive learning tools, prepare meeting materials, and edit academic papers. One faculty member noted the value of being able to work with different models to find the best approach for a given task.
Privacy by design
Personal information is not used to train AI Studio or its underlying AI models. Penn State staff do not monitor individual prompts or conversations, and conversations will not be provided in connection with academic integrity investigations.
A growing AI ecosystem
AI Studio joins Microsoft Copilot as part of Penn State's expanding portfolio of AI tools. Additional tools, including Google's Gemini and NotebookLM, are planned.
Getting started
Faculty and staff can access AI Studio using their Penn State credentials. On first login, users will review a brief acknowledgement covering data handling, permitted use and the limitations of AI-generated content.
Those who are new to generative AI are encouraged to start with the AI Essentials at Penn State course to build foundational skills before exploring the platform. Additional resources — including Knowledge Base articles, FAQs, a quick-start guide, and an AI Studio Learning Path — are available at ai.psu.edu.
For help, contact the IT Service Desk via chat, submit a Get Help ticket, call 814-865-4357 or email ITservicedesk@psu.edu.