Hello everyone! AITX Team here with more updates this week.
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Connect you with like-minded peers passionate about AI.
Provide a space for sharing ideas and receiving feedback on AI projects you’re building.
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Before we jump into the regular news, a few housekeeping items:
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State of AI in Texas Report Survey Live!
Howdy! The State of AI in Texas Report (STAR) has been finalized.
AITX Community and UT School of Law is excited to hear what the community has to say! By mapping the AI landscape and understanding stakeholder interactions, we hope to identify key businesses involved with AI development in Texas.
And by learning about AI product usage and how to support needs of new AI developers, we aim to provide a report that will both inform smart AI policy and serve as a guide for businesses on AI development.
THE WHO – We Want to Hear From You: If you’re based in Texas and work at Startups, Scaleups, or Enterprises, this survey is for you.
This is your chance to have your voice heard.
In this week’s edition you’re getting:
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
So let’s jump in!
Community Events
When: Wednesday, May 27 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Coder Austin 520 E Oltorf St · Austin, TX
What: This meetup is for developers and platform teams who want to understand what it actually takes to move from AI experimentation to production-ready workflows. We’ll focus on how teams are redesigning their development workflows to work with AI, not just adding tools on top. That includes how to structure workflows, manage agents, and introduce the right level of control without killing developer velocity. No hype. No tool comparisons. Just a clear look at why most AI workflows fail and what actually works at scale.
When: Wednesday, Jun 3 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What: Join us for an evening of practical content on getting AI agents from prototype to production. Expect a hands-on workshop where you'll deploy a real multi-agent system on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, with all infrastructure defined as code using Pulumi.
When: Wednesday, Jun 24 | 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM CST
Where: Elastic Office 823 Congress Ave · Austin, TX
What: Talk #1: Building AI Workflows with Elasticsearch, RAG, and Edge Observability - Binoy Jose and Benjamin Francis.
When: Wednesday, May 27 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Coder Austin 520 E Oltorf St · Austin, TX
What: This meetup is for developers and platform teams who want to understand what it actually takes to move from AI experimentation to production-ready workflows. We’ll focus on how teams are redesigning their development workflows to work with AI, not just adding tools on top. That includes how to structure workflows, manage agents, and introduce the right level of control without killing developer velocity.
When: Wednesday, June 3 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: ACC - RGC 3000 1218 West Avenue · Austin, TX
What: We focus on agentic software development: multi-agent architectures, middleware patterns, LangChain + LangGraph workflows, DeepAgents, and real-world application building.
COMMUNITY STORIES
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is demanding a halt to new AI data center construction in rural Texas, citing threats to farmland, water supplies, and the state's power grid. The call comes just two weeks after an AI data center was announced for the Robstown area, highlighting escalating conflicts between technology expansion and agricultural preservation. Miller insists that farmers, ranchers, and property owners must remain the priority as rural communities face pressure from large-scale tech development.
Why it matters: This regulatory pushback could significantly impact AI infrastructure expansion plans and investment strategies across Texas, potentially affecting the broader AI industry's access to critical computing resources and data center locations.
Need to know:
Commissioner Miller is requesting a pause on all new data center development statewide due to concerns about farmland conversion, water resource depletion, and power grid strain
A new AI data center is already planned for the Robstown area, announced just two weeks before Miller's call for a moratorium
Large-scale data centers are increasingly targeting rural Texas areas where open land is abundant, creating direct competition with agricultural interests for land and resources
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has launched a "Smart Corridor" pilot program on State Highway 130, deploying artificial intelligence technology along a 4-mile stretch to automatically detect crashes and road hazards in real-time. The AI-powered system is designed to dramatically reduce emergency response times and minimize traffic delays by instantly identifying incidents as they occur.
Why it matters: This deployment demonstrates the growing adoption of AI-powered safety technology by government transportation agencies, validating the market demand for intelligent infrastructure solutions that improve public safety and traffic management.
Need to know:
TxDOT deployed AI technology across a 4-mile stretch of State Highway 130 as part of a Smart Corridor pilot program
The AI system automatically detects crashes and road hazards in real-time to reduce emergency response times
This represents one of the first major smart corridor implementations in Texas, potentially setting a precedent for statewide expansion
Permit filings show SpaceX wants to build a 10-gigawatt solar cell manufacturing facility in Bastrop, part of Elon Musk's plan to power AI data centers in space.
Why it matters: The energy bottleneck is the real constraint on AI infrastructure, and Central Texas is becoming ground zero for solving it at industrial scale.
Need to know:
The Bastrop facility would span over 1 million square feet across two floors, each producing five gigawatts of solar cells, doubling the size of SpaceX's existing site there
Musk has set a goal for SpaceX and Tesla to each build 100 gigawatts per year of US solar manufacturing capacity within three years, a figure that would dwarf today's roughly 60-gigawatt national panel capacity
Tesla is running a parallel play near Houston in Brookshire, posting jobs for a solar plant that will also make Megapack batteries
That’s all for now, folks!
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