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.
Be sure to follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Before we jump into the regular news, a few housekeeping items:
Upcoming AITX Community Events:
Austin AITX Community Monthly Meetup | sign up here!
Houston AITX Community Monthly Meetup | sign up here!
To stay in the loop on all our monthly meetups and other community organized events, subscribe to our AITX Community calendar here.
Check out our 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.
AITX Community & NVIDIA NemoClaw Hackathon
AITX Community is partnering with NVIDIA for a hands-on NemoClaw hackathon focused on building real autonomous agent applications. Participants will use NemoClaw, NVIDIA Agent Toolkit, and Nemotron models to build agents that do more than chat: they should take action, coordinate tools, and produce a working demo by the end of the event.
This is built for AI engineers, builders, founders, researchers, and technical operators who want to experiment with the next generation of agentic systems.
You do not need to be an expert in NemoClaw before arriving, but you should be comfortable building quickly and shipping a demo.
We are also very grateful to our current track sponsors: RedHat and HiddenLayer.
AITX Community Member Survey
As we head into the summer, we wanted to take the time to ask how we can help y’all better.
Please fill out this survey to tell us how we can better help you (takes less than 2 minutes) 👇
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: Tuesday, July 14 | 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM CST
Where: Antler VC Austin, TX
What: We'll build a competitor ad-spy tool that turns hours of manual scrolling through the Meta Ad Library into a paste-one-URL workflow. You give it a competitor's Facebook page, and it pulls their video ads, ranks them by the spend and longevity signals that reveal a likely winner, and has AI watch each one to reverse-engineer the creative strategy: hook, offer, proof, and call to action (CTA).
When: Monday, Jul 20 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What:
Agenda -
6:00 PM – 6:20 PM: Mingle and Get Food
• Grab some pizza, drinks, and chat for a bit as everyone arrives
6:20 PM – 6:30PM: Bryce and Reid go over current events
• featuring 5 questions of AI trivia to win prizes
6:30 PM – 7:00PM: Presentation #1
7:00 PM – 7:15PM: Presentation #2
7:15 PM – 8:00 PM: Hack / Network
• Collaborate with fellow attendees to apply what you've learned. Work on projects related to the evening's themes or any AI ideas you're passionate about.
When: Monday, July 6 | 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM CST
Where: Creative Collective Austin, TX
What: Imagine having an executive assistant, content strategist, community manager, or operations coordinator supporting your business without hiring anyone. At Claudette Club, we'll help you build custom AI teammates inside Claude that save time, reduce overwhelm, and help you get more done.
When: Friday, July 10 5:30 PM - Jul 11, 6:30 PM
Where: Antler VC Austin, TX
What: A hands-on Organized AI workshop for builders moving beyond AI chat into real agentic systems. We’ll walk through the full agentic engineering stack: agents, workflows, second brains, model routing, subagent orchestration, browser QA, telemetry, recursive self-improvement, deployment, and visual system design.
When: Monday, July 13 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory Austin, TX
What: This meetup is created to help connect the local community and learn more about using Claude
COMMUNITY STORIES
In a striking reversal for a state famous for its business-friendly stance, new polling from the University of Texas' Texas Politics Project reveals that most Texans oppose AI data centers being built in their communities. The resistance crosses party lines, with 43% of Republicans opposing such developments despite Texas rapidly becoming a major hub for AI infrastructure.
Why it matters: This growing local opposition could significantly impact where AI companies choose to locate critical infrastructure, potentially affecting deployment timelines and operational costs across the industry.
Need to know:
Most Texans oppose data center construction in their communities according to new UT Texas Politics Project polling, despite the state's history of welcoming corporate development
Opposition is bipartisan: 43% of Republicans oppose data centers while only 42% support them, suggesting this isn't simply a partisan issue
Texas is rapidly becoming a major hub for AI infrastructure, making this shift in public sentiment particularly significant for the industry's expansion plans
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced plans to prohibit construction of new AI data centers near rural residential areas during a recent East Texas campaign event. The proposal represents a notable shift for a state traditionally favoring minimal business regulations, highlighting escalating tensions between AI infrastructure expansion and local community interests.
Why it matters: This regulatory shift in one of America's most business-friendly states signals that AI infrastructure development may face increasing community pushback and location restrictions, potentially impacting deployment timelines and costs across the industry.
Need to know:
Governor Abbott's proposal targets AI data centers specifically in rural neighborhoods, responding directly to constituent concerns about infrastructure placement
The announcement was made during a campaign stop in East Texas, a region likely experiencing or anticipating data center development pressure
This marks a significant departure from Texas's typical hands-off regulatory approach to business development and technology infrastructure
Researchers at UT Austin's Good Systems team are building a "People's Guide to AI," a plain-language handbook aimed at helping everyday users navigate AI in medicine, money, and daily life. It hits pretesting by late August and is targeting a 2026 release.
Why it matters: The flagship university in our backyard is shaping how the next wave of Texas builders and users think about responsible AI, and that framing ripples out into the whole ecosystem.
Need-to-know:
Professor Sharon Strover, who co-directed Good Systems, is pushing transparency as the core standard: say which tool you used, how, and why.
The guide is envisioned like a graphic novel, engaging and accessible rather than academic, with one advisor hoping every UT student gets a copy.
The team admits AI guidance has a short shelf life, so this is built to address real everyday questions rather than chase fast-moving technical details.
That’s all for now, folks!
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