BoodleBox Collaborative AI Coming to UW 

Photo by Darken Wolf

An Interview with BoodleBox CEO France Hoang 

LARAMIE, Wy. — The University of Wyoming has partnered with the collaborative AI company, BoodleBox, to bring AI access to all students across campus. Access for teachers with this new AI system will start around the spring semester of 2027, and student access will come later. This will be a free service to all students and teachers, with the option to use or not use the new BoodleBox AI tool. 

In an interview with the Branding Iron, BoodleBox CEO France Hoang explains how the BoodleBox AI works and addresses concerns about AI to students.  

“BoodleBox is a collaborative AI platform. That enables responsible teaching and learning and working with AI. “ said Hoang, “Inside BoodleBox, a student, staff, or faculty member gets access to all the top AI tools in one place. It is private by design, so the things that you do inside Bootlebox aren’t going to be shared with the model providers for training or anybody else, for that matter, unless you choose to share it. The idea is to provide equitable access to AI so that there are no haves or have-nots with AI.” 

BoodleBox has a different process on how it functions compared to other AI products such as ChatGPT. 

“The kind of unique thing in BoodleBox is that you can work with multiple AI models together. You can ask ChatGPT what it thinks, then ask Claude and ask Gemini, and you can do that in collaboration with other people,” said Hoang, “As a student, you could collaborate with an AI model and five of your other students together. And that enables us to teach with and about AI in a way that will prepare you to both think with AI, work responsibly with AI, right? And frankly, develop the kind of skills that employers are looking for in today’s world.” 

Hoang explains his view as a CEO on the importance of understanding AI for a student going into the workforce. 

“There was a Microsoft LinkedIn study a couple of years back. They interviewed 30,000 global employers. This was 2 years ago. 70% of employers said they won’t hire somebody with AI skills. And of those, 60% said they will hire somebody with AI skills and less experience over somebody who had more experience and no AI skills,” said Hoang, “For a student that wants more opportunities, I think being fluent with AI, which includes knowing when to use it, when not to use it, how to use it well, right, is going to open up a lot of doors.” 

The use of AI has been a controversial topic, dividing people on the ethics of using such a product. Hoang gives his answers to common concerns about AI, and in particular, his product, BoodleBox. 

“AI has made tasks easier. It doesn’t necessarily have made jobs easier, right? I don’t hire someone just to do a task. I hire someone because of their judgment, because of their ability to collaborate, their ability to communicate,” said Hoang, to a question about AI taking jobs. “There’s something called the Jevons paradox. It talks about how technology over a long enough time horizon actually creates more jobs and more opportunities, but it does require change. In 1900, I think something like 27% of Americans were employed in agriculture. In 2000, that became 4%. Does that mean 23% of people are standing around waiting for agriculture jobs? No, those people became doctors and lawyers and analysts and started companies, right? And so yes, AI is certainly going to take away some opportunities, right? Because those jobs are really just tasks. But I think it’s going to create a whole bunch of host of other opportunities. And I think there are tremendous opportunities for UW students, right, in this coming economy if they become the kind of person that I want to hire already in my company.” 

“Does Boodlebox reduce the amount of resources combined by AI? Yes, right? You know what’s even better than reducing the resources consumed by AI? Not consuming any resources whatsoever. I think an important part of AI literacy and learning how to use AI well is knowing when not to use it.” said Hoang on resource consumption by AI data centers. “That’s just something you create with AI that doesn’t really solve a problem or doesn’t solve it well. By learning to use AI well, we reduce the amount of AI we need to use, and we reduce the amount of data centers we need. We reduce the amount of water we have to consume. And so that’s not about reducing; that’s not about our technology; that’s about the person using the technology and using it well.” 

Hoang continues, “BoodleBox has a token optimization technology, which reduces the number of tokens required to operate AI by up to 96%. That dramatically reduces the energy consumption and environmental impact of AI.” 

Hoang wants his collaborative AI service to be available to staff and students on campuses across the country. His company has collaborated with Microsoft and continues expanding its reach.  

“We are a tool, a toolkit for you all to construct the kind of institution that you want the University of Wyoming to be, right? And that itself is a partnership between the faculty, staff, and students” said Hoang. “I think there’s a lot of conversations that need to be had. There’s going to be a lot of dialogue. There’s going to be a lot of different viewpoints, and that’s okay. This is a journey, and we’re all learning here. And so, I’ve been really, really thankful for the opportunity to engage with the University of Wyoming community and hear the many different viewpoints. And it’s okay to disagree. Frankly, right? We are all learning here, and it’s a journey.”