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AI Security Alert, North Texas Acquisition, and Anime Law Concerns
Your weekly roundup of Texas AI news, events, and community updates
AITX Team
April 11, 2025
Hello everyone! AITX Team here with more updates this week.
If you’re new here, welcome! 👋 At AITX, we aim to:
Connect you with like-minded peers passionate about AI.
Provide a space for sharing ideas and receiving feedback on AI projects you’re building.
Share helpful tools and invaluable resources.
Before we jump into the regular news, a few housekeeping items:
February AITX Meetups:
Our upcoming meetups:
Austin Meetup: Tuesday, April 25 | sign up here!
To stay in the loop on all our monthly meetups and other community organized events, subscribe to our AITX calendar here.
Check out our Community Directory:
We recently started a community directory where you can fill out your profile and find other members of the AITX community.
If you haven’t filled out your profile yet, please follow the link HERE and submit your information.
We want to get to know you better! Please fill out this form if you haven’t already:
In this week’s edition you’re getting:
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
1 Community Highlight
So let’s jump in!
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Wednesday, April 30 | 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: AT&T Hotel and Conference Center 1900 University Ave · Austin, TX
What: The Triton framework provides a hardware agnostic way of programming and targeting GPUs. As Triton becomes more widely adopted, it will be essential in understanding how to write, optimize and troubleshoot the Triton kernel in order to optimize GPU efficiency for algorithms
🪓 Hack AI
When: Thursday, May 1 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St, 16th Floor · Austin, TX
What: A monthly mini-hack session for developers all over the Austin area to build cool stuff related to AI. The first Thursday of each month, we will host a meetup revolving around a certain theme or AI technology, like Voice AI, Large Language Models, Computer Vision, etc
When: Friday, April 11 | 11:00 AM - 2:30 PM CST
Where: Scuzzi's Italian Grill 4035 North Loop 1604 West · San Antonio, TX
What:
Host Intro-Potential AI use cases for Application Security
Leveraging AI for Vulnerability Identification-NowSecure
AI coding agents -Risks and Benefits-Endor Lab
AppSec for AI AND NHI (Non Human Identity) -GrayLog
Shadow AI and AppSec: What You Don’t Know Will Get You!-ByteWhisper
When:Thursday, April 24 | 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: The Brewtorium Brewery & Kitchen 6015 Dillard Cir A · Austin, TX
What: No agenda, no sponsor, no cost. Just show up, buy your own drinks and hang out with other people in the industry. Be prepared to share stories and laughs. Looking to meet other data people in the Austin area? Whether you're a data engineer, a data analyst, a data scientist, or something in-between... you've found the right event.
When: Wednesday, May 7 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What: Due to room capacity and building security, it is REQUIRED to register on the event website for admission. (RSVP is CLOSED on meetup). Welcome to the AI meetup in Austin. Join us for deep dive tech talks on AI, GenAI, LLMs and Agents, hands-on experiences on code labs, workshops, and networking with speakers and fellow developers.
COMMUNITY STORIES
UTSA researchers uncover alarming security risks when AI recommends non-existent software packages, creating easy openings for hackers.
Why it matters: This research exposes a significant vulnerability in the Texas AI ecosystem, where developers increasingly rely on AI assistants to write code that could inadvertently introduce security breaches.
Need-to-know:
Nearly 1 in 5 packages recommended by some AI models don't actually exist, allowing attackers to create malicious versions that users unknowingly download
Up to 97% of software developers now use generative AI in their workflow, with 30% of today's code being AI-generated
Commercial models like GPT perform better than open-source alternatives, with hallucination rates of 5.2% versus 21.7%
Python code proved less susceptible to package hallucinations than JavaScript in the comprehensive study
The vulnerability exploits growing trust in AI coding assistants, as users become less likely to verify package authenticity
Learn more here.
Frisco-based Humach expands its AI customer experience capabilities by acquiring New York's Markets EQ, known for AI-powered voice analytics in financial services.
Why it matters: This acquisition strengthens Texas' position in the growing AI customer experience sector, targeting a $250 billion market for agentic AI solutions.
Need-to-know:
Markets EQ's technology analyzes pitch, tempo, and emotional resonance in voices, providing previously unattainable insights at scale
Markets EQ will operate as an independent subsidiary while its leadership joins Humach's executive team
The combined company serves Fortune 1000 customers across healthcare, utilities, financial services, and retail
Humach's mAI Pilot platform will integrate Markets EQ's voice analytics to enhance customer experiences
Learn more here.
New Texas Bill Could Affect Anime and Manga Fans
A bill targeting AI-generated child pornography is raising concerns about its potential impact on Japanese animation and comics in Texas.
Why it matters: The legislation creates uncertainty for Texas' anime community and could affect conventions, artists, and retailers that contribute to the state's creative economy.
Need-to-know:
Senate Bill 20 criminalizes possession of "obscene material appearing to depict a child," including cartoons and animations
The bill has passed the Senate unanimously and carries penalties of up to two years in prison and $10,000 fines
Legal experts warn of constitutional challenges, citing Supreme Court precedent on fictional depictions
Industry professionals fear a chilling effect that could impact Texas anime conventions, artists, and retailers
Learn more here.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT
AITX x Startup Haven Technical Founders Dinner
A night of dinner and networking with technical founders in our AITX and Startup Haven community at Antler Austin.
Note that this event is exclusively for startup founders.
What You Need to Know
When: Tuesday, April 15 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM
For everyone:
This is not an event just for poker players, but for players and non-players of poker alike.
Please come just to enjoy the food and drinks.
For our poker players:
MAKE SURE TO BRING CASH, buy-in starts at $10.
Beginner poker players are encouraged to attend:
This is a friendly, inclusive game of low-stakes poker and the first.Details on the poker game can be found here: Poker Basics Webpage
If you're new to Startup Haven events, familiarize yourself with the details by reviewing the Startup Haven Event Basics
Request to join
AITX community members can use code AITX to signup for free!
That’s all for now, folks!
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