Hello everyone! AITX Team here with more updates this week.
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SxSW Events for the AI Community
🏠 Texas AI House presented by webAI
The Texas AI House is here.
AITX Community and Hack AI are teaming up for a full-day summit during SXSW exploring Texas's role in the AI revolution.
Why it matters: The Texas AI House is bringing together the entrepreneurs, engineers, and operators actually building AI in Texas for real conversations about where this industry is headed. Expect technical insights from major tech companies, honest dialogue from founders who chose to build here, and a ground-level view of AI development from the people doing the work.
The lineup wraps with dedicated networking time to connect with speakers, founders, and community members shaping the Texas AI ecosystem firsthand.
Sponsored by Antler and webAI, two companies putting serious investment behind Texas-based AI talent.
🤖 Agents & Automation with Apify and Overdrive
Agents and automation, live and in person.
Apify and Overdrive are hosting a morning of hands-on talks and live demos during SXSW week, diving into how AI agents and automation are changing the way businesses actually operate.
What you'll see: Overdrive walks through real automation case studies from the VC and startup world, covering dealflow pipelines, portfolio ops, and workflow automation running in production today. Apify demos how AI agents can scrape, extract, and automate across the web using composable tools, including a live look at giving agents web scraping superpowers through OpenClaw skills and Apify's actor ecosystem.
Who should be there: Founders, engineering leaders, VCs, solo builders, and anyone shipping AI-powered products or automations. Writing code or vibe coding your way through it, either way, this is your room.
👓 Meta SxSW Reception: Celebrating Wearable Technology
Meta is hosting a SXSW side event, Celebrating Wearable Technology: AI Glasses for Social and Economic Impact on Thursday, March 12 (5:30–8:00 p.m.).
The evening will feature opening remarks from Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a cross-sector panel on how AI glasses can drive accessibility, workforce development, and education, plus live demos and developer showcases highlighting Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses, Oakley Meta AI Performance Glasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display, Meta Neural Band, and the Wearables Device Access Toolkit.
☀ How To Apply AI To Solve Valuable Business Problems
Real AI. Real business problems. No slides.
Applied AI Society and OpenTeams are hosting a practitioner panel at SXSW on how to actually apply AI to solve valuable business problems.
Why it matters: Most organizations know AI matters but have no idea how to implement it. This panel brings together practitioners who each took a different path to the same conclusion: if you understand the business problem deeply enough, you can apply AI to solve it today. A platform evangelist, a consultant, and a founder who built his own replacement for the legacy software his industry depends on.
The format: No slides, no keynotes. One hour of concrete stories, moderated conversation, and audience Q&A in a room of 40 people at The LINE Hotel. Small enough for real dialogue.
When: Sunday, March 15 at 11am, part of the RedThreadX House activation at SXSW.
sIn this week’s edition you’re getting:
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
So let’s jump in!
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Saturday March 28 | 10:00 AM to-5:00 PM CST
Where: Austin 111 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701, United States · Austin, TX
What: We’re hosting the Robotics & Edge Inference Conference in March or April 2026. From the smallest microcontrollers to the most advanced Jetson-class modules, modern robots now run perception and policy on-device. We’ll go end-to-end—from compilers & runtimes (TensorRT, TVM, ONNX Runtime) and ROS 2/Isaac dataflow, to multi-sensor 3D perception & state estimation, to navigation and diffusion policies for manipulation. We’ll also showcase demos from top robotics companies in Austin.
When: Tuesday, March 10 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: Q-Branch
What: As real-time databases integrate more closely with data lakes to reduce storage costs and unlock data for AI and advanced analytics, data infrastructure is evolving fast. Join us to hear from leading experts as they share practical solutions and lessons learned in building open, scalable, and high-performance data platforms.
When: Thursday, March 12 | 1:30 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: Register to see address
What: Set against the backdrop of Austin’s rapidly evolving innovation landscape, the Summit brings together investors, founders, policymakers, technologists, and cultural leaders exploring how technology, capital, and creativity are reshaping and transforming the world in our home state of Texas and beyond.
When: Sunday, Marc 8 | 10:00 AM CST - 1:00 PM CST
Where: Register to see address
What: Most Sundays, ideas stay ideas. Let's change that. International Women's Day this year is a building. We're hosting a local Austin event as part of Lovable's SheBuilds with support from Anthropic and Stripe. Show up with an idea, any idea, and by noon you'll have a real, working app to show for it. Never coded in your life? Perfect. That's kind of the whole point
Physical AI Builders Showcase: Robots, Agents, Superhuman, and Manufacturing
When: Thursday, March 12 | 2:00 PM - 6:30 PM CST
Where: Register to see address
What: As the high-visibility capstone to our spring 2026 Physical AI series — following the Inaugural Physical AI Meetup in Austin (Feb 19) and the Dallas Physical AI Forum (March 5) — the SXSW Physical AI Showcase delivers an elevated, must-attend platform amid the global spotlight
COMMUNITY STORIES
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller made AI data centers a central campaign issue, warning that server farms are consuming valuable farmland and depleting rural water supplies. Despite his concerns resonating with traditional Texas values, Republican primary voters ultimately rejected his message, handing the nomination to businessman Nate Sheets, who was backed by Gov. Greg Abbott. The result signals that even in agriculture-focused Texas, the economic momentum behind AI infrastructure may outweigh concerns about farmland preservation.
Why it matters: This primary result demonstrates that political support for AI infrastructure expansion is gaining strength even in traditionally agriculture-focused communities, potentially clearing regulatory pathways for AITX and other AI companies to expand data center operations.
Need to know:
Incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller lost the Republican primary to first-time candidate Nate Sheets, who was backed by Gov. Greg Abbott
Miller's campaign centered on warnings that AI data centers are consuming farmland and draining rural water supplies in Texas
The primary outcome suggests economic and political momentum behind AI infrastructure may be stronger than traditional agricultural preservation appeals, even in Texas
XTGlobal Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of XTGlobal Infotech Ltd., has landed a significant $796,900 contract with the Texas Department of Transportation to deliver AI-enabled engineering services. The six-month program, launching March 16 and running through September 30, 2026, includes milestone-based deliverables and the potential for a six-month extension, showcasing the growing adoption of artificial intelligence in critical state infrastructure projects.
Why it matters: This contract demonstrates how state governments are actively investing in AI integration for infrastructure operations, validating the expanding market opportunity for AI-focused companies in the public sector.
Need to know:
Contract value: $796,900 (approximately INR 7.2 crore) with payment tied to milestone-based deliverables
Timeline: Six-month program from March 16 to September 30, 2026, with potential for an additional six-month extension pending separate approval
Scope: Development and implementation of AI-enabled engineering services for one of the largest state transportation agencies in the United States
Texas Tech history professor Paul Bjerk shares his journey from waging a "lonely little war" against AI chatbots in his classroom three years ago to developing a more balanced perspective on artificial intelligence in education. While acknowledging concerns raised by AI pioneers like Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton about potential risks, Bjerk argues that AI tools can serve society positively when deployed among populations educated in critical thinking and humane values through the humanities.
Why it matters: As AITX develops AI-powered security and productivity solutions, understanding how educators and thought leaders are grappling with AI integration in society provides valuable insight into public perception and the importance of responsible AI deployment.
Need to know:
Professor Bjerk first noticed AI's impact on education three years ago when students began submitting coherent but irrelevant answers on college exams, prompting him to develop various countermeasures
Google recently released its latest AI model free to college students, and AI writing assistants are now being integrated into every writing tool students use
The professor emphasizes that AI's usefulness depends on society prioritizing humanities education to develop critical thinkers with humane values, rather than focusing solely on technological advancement
Texas Tech history professor Paul Bjerk has shifted from fighting AI chatbots in his classroom to embracing a more balanced perspective on their role in education. His journey began three years ago when he first detected AI-generated answers on college exams, sparking what he called his "lonely little war" with the technology. Bjerk now argues that AI can be a valuable tool-but only in a society that cultivates critical thinking and humane values through strong humanities education.
Why it matters: As AITX develops AI-powered solutions for security and operations, understanding how educators are grappling with AI's societal impact highlights the importance of responsible AI deployment that complements rather than replaces human judgment.
Need to know:
Professor Paul Bjerk's initial detection of AI-generated exam answers three years ago marked the beginning of his evolving perspective on artificial intelligence in education
Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton has warned about potential "doom scenarios" regarding AI's growing power and independence, concerns that resonate even with educators adapting to the technology
Bjerk emphasizes that AI tools are only beneficial when deployed in societies that prioritize critical thinking and humane values-qualities cultivated through humanities education
That’s all for now, folks!
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