Quick look
As artificial intelligence tools debut and evolve at a rapid pace, an Iowa State computer science professor and her students are developing a public website that tracks new AI releases and helps users make sense of the fast-changing technology.
AMES, Iowa - By midsemester last spring, Wei Le could see it on her students' faces - not confusion, exactly, but a kind of volume-induced whiplash.
Le, a professor of computer science at Iowa State University, was teaching an advanced artificial intelligence course at a moment when AI tools were multiplying faster than anyone could reasonably track. New demos dropped daily. Models updated overnight. Hype surged, crashed and surged again. Students weren't struggling with the concepts; they were struggling with the pace.
"It wasn't a question of the students' ability or enthusiasm for learning," Le said. "It was the sheer velocity of innovation in artificial intelligence. It can be overwhelming and often outpaces the frameworks available to study it."
So, she improvised.
Le decided to carve out a weekly pause in the syllabus - a segment she called "This Week's AI" - where students could collectively sift through whatever had launched, broken, gone viral or quietly impressed the internet in the previous few days. The class became part seminar, part newsroom and part tech‑support group. Students arrived with screenshots and questions they weren't sure how to articulate, and together they compared tools, dissected demos and marveled at breakthroughs - and failures - that seemed to rewrite the rules in real time.
The segment also became one of the most popular parts of the course, Le said.
"It was clear the students wanted more than a discussion," Le said. "They wanted a place to track AI tools, including what's new, what it does and whether it's worth their time."
This realization soon turned her classroom solution into a full-scale project.
A map for a landscape that keeps moving
Le and a small team of graduate students are now building Todaysai.ai, a public‑facing website designed to catalog AI tools as they emerge, offering short descriptions, use cases, links to demos and notes on how each model behaves in the wild. The goal isn't to crown winners or declare trends, Le said. It's to give people a way to make sense of a field that changes by the hour.
"People don't want or need every tool," Le said. "They're looking for clarity, context and what matters for what they're trying to do."
Todaysai.ai features a modest design, with clean lines, simple categories and plain language. And that's the point, Le said.
"We want the site to be easy to explore and accessible to everyone," she said.
The site, which is free to use, updates daily and functions as a searchable hub that organizes hundreds of AI tools. Categories highlight what's new across image generation, video generation, personal assistants and chat LLMs, coding and infrastructure, and other experimental tools spanning education, storytelling and creative applications.
"The site uses AI to help locate new tools and organize them, but we (Le and her students) still manually review each entry to ensure accuracy and clarity," Le said. "And when official demos aren't available, we create simple visuals to show how each new tool works."
"Our goal isn't to rank or endorse tools but to translate them and help people understand what tools currently are available so they can consider using them in their work and life," Le said.
The human need behind the technical rush
Since quietly launching late last spring, Todaysai.ai has garnered more than 130,000 visitors - a number that continues to climb.
Le said two community-driven features have played an important part in that growth by focusing on connecting users who have real-world problems with developers who can build or recommend solutions.
The site's "promote my AI tool or service" option allows creators to submit their AI tools for inclusion, while the "I can't find the AI tool I need" query function allows users to describe a problem or need, which helps the site identify gaps in the AI ecosystem.
"These features help match real-life needs with emerging technologies," Le said.
Le said Todaysai.ai also feels especially timely because of the site's underlying premise that "all kinds of people are suddenly being asked to navigate a technology that is evolving faster than any previous one."
"I think about K-12 teachers who want to understand AI without getting lost in the weeds, about seniors who might benefit from tools designed for their needs and about farmers who ask how AI could help them manage data," Le said.
"AI isn't meant to replace people," she said. "People need to understand how to use it, how to evaluate it and how to choose the right tools. At its core, Todaysai.ai offers a way to see AI tools as they are and not as they're marketed. We want people to feel more empowered and less overwhelmed."
A resource for Iowans and beyond
Overall, Todaysai.ai is still in "building progress," Le said - a phrase that feels apt not just for the website but for AI itself. Students and colleagues continue to email her with ideas, and the project is expanding in real time, shaped by the people who use it.
She also said the next phase of the site is rooted in a simple idea.
"AI shouldn't feel out of reach for the people who stand to benefit from it most," said Le, who previously participated in cohort 18 of the ISU Startup Factory and brings an entrepreneurial mindset to her research and work.
Her team is currently exploring grants and funding opportunities to further develop Todaysai.ai, as well as partnerships that could help introduce the site to people across Iowa who want to understand what AI can do, how to evaluate it and where it might be helpful to support their work and quality of life. She envisions workshops for K-12 teachers, rural entrepreneurs, farmers and senior adults - especially those who are curious about AI but wary of misinformation or overly complex interfaces - and hopes to build a learning community through newsletters and demo dashboards that help the public track and understand the current state of AI.
"AI literacy is going to matter for everyone," Le said. "People need a trusted place to see what's real, what's new and actually helpful."
In the long term, Le hopes Todaysai.ai will grow into a statewide (and beyond) resource that serves as a "digital front porch" where people can explore and learn about emerging tools without pressure, jargon or hype.
"I imagine it continuously evolving, and I hope it goes on and on," Le said. "We're just getting started."
