SMU Students Shake Up the News Industry with an AI That Fights Bias
DALLAS, TX – In our increasingly divided society, SMU students harness AI to build a brighter tomorrow.
TIMIO News is a set of AI tools designed to expose bias and currate opposing viewpoints — when Americans need it most. With support from SMU and national recognition from Chelsea Clinton, TIMIO’s building America’s fairest news feed.
SMU Grad, Josh Baier began working on TIMIO in 2022, releasing both the mobile app and Chrome extension in early 2025. TIMIO’s AI tools—Torch and Pivot—use Claude to flag slanted language and find articles with alternate views.
Unlike Google or Apple news, TIMIO’s feed is standardized for all users—no personalization, no echo chambers.
Tech that informs, not manipulates
Torch
Detects sensationalism, blind spots, and language bias in real-time.
Algorithm Free
Everyone sees the same stories—no preference algorithms
Pivot
Finds articles with different views in 1 click, breaking users’ bubbles.
AI for good
TIMIO’s AI is built off Anthropic’s Claude. It’s trained on journalism ethics and cognitive psychology.
Their flagship model identifies logical fallacies and poor journalism in a bullet-point analysis.
The team believes it’ll keep journalists and news readers accountable.
Every year, Clinton Global Initiative University picks 100 students from across the globe working on solving social impact issues.
Josh was lucky enough to accepted into CGIU’s 2024 Cohort for TIMIO’s impact focus.
Of 100 students, Josh’s work was one of 3 Chelsea Clinton chose to personally highlight at the end of program.
-Chelsea Clinton
Student Built.
The idea resonated. TIMIO was built in a dorm room and brought to life in SMU’s new entrepreneurship ecosystem, culminating in the company representing SMU on national television.
Early funding came from SMU Big Ideas—a campus wide pitch competition. Further support was found in SMU’s Entrepreneurship clubs. Eventually TIMIO received its first serious investment from SMU Impact Lab, a new initiative that invests in companies with purpose.
As momentum grew, so did support. TIMIO News became integrated in SMU curriculum in Professor Charlie Schudder’s journalism ethics class. SMU advertised TIMIO on campus with lawn signs and digital ads, and the company was picked up by the student paper. The ToS, Privacy Policy, and trademarks were even filed with assistance from SMU’s Student Law Clinic.
Most excitingly, TIMIO was chosen to represent SMU in the ACC’s entrepreneurship competition. In preparation, the team received intensive mentorship from faculty.
On April 2nd, Josh Baier, Abbie Ellermeir and Justus Woods pitched TIMIO on PBS.
Today and tomorrow.
Most recently, TIMIO welcomed technical lead Julian Cabera to the team. This summer Josh and Julian are taking TIMIO into SMU’s 1st accelerator, Spears LAUNCH. The program features 12 weeks of workshops and training, ending in a demo day where TIMIO and 10 other SMU companies will pitch to Dallas investors.
While you can use the TIMIO app free on both Google Play and IOS today, its development has been temporarily halted.
The team’s instead focused on enhancing their Chrome Extension, which allows users to take their AI to any website on desktop. Focusing on the extension allows the team to iterate faster and bring TIMIO’s tools to more sites. You can use it for free in two clicks.
Development on the app is expected to resume this fall, however it will remain operational throughout the summer.
