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AITX Summer Starter: Power, Policy, and Progress
From more hackathons to statewide AI laws, here’s what’s heating up in the AITX community.
AITX Team & Michael Daigler
June 06, 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:
Upcoming AITX Events:
Austin Monthly Meetup: Tuesday, June 24 | sign up here!
Houston Monthly Meetup: Tuesday, June 17 | sign up here!
Hack AI: Thursday, June 5 | sign up here!
Organized AI // Vibe Coders Hackathon, June 21 | 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:
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.
Join the AITX Talent Network
Looking for new roles or open to opportunities in AI?
We’re building a network to connect local talent with great companies.
🛡️ 100% private: we’ll always reach out before connecting you with anyone.
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: Friday, June 13 | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM CST
What: Come join the local ATX Build Session for the World's Largest Hackathon organized by Bolt.new with 80,000+ participants and OVER $1m IN PRIZES!
When: Saturday, June 21 | 6:30 PM - Jun 22, 6:30 PM CST
What: Transform your development skills with cutting-edge AI tools in this intensive 48-hour hackathon focused on building your first AI Agent using AI-assisted development workflows. Designed for mixed skill levels with a beginner-friendly approach, this event balances structured learning with hands-on development time.
When: Monday, June 23 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
What: AI Product Dinners are a curated event series from AITX and webAI bringing together top technical founders and operators in Austin for intimate discussions on building and scaling real-world AI products.
When: Wednesday, July 2 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST
Where: ACC - RGC 3000 1218 West Avenue · Austin, TX
What: The AI Middleware Users Group believes in “Learning in the Open.” We experiment together with LangChain, LangGraph, LangSmith, and the broader AI stack—sharing demos, pitfalls, and wins so everyone levels up.
When: Monday, June 9 | 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM CST
Where: Lazarus Brewing Co. on Airport Blvd 4803 Airport Blvd, · Austin, TX
What: PyTorch ATX is a meetup group for deep learning researchers and practitioners to get together to discuss ML research, personal experiments, and deep learning frameworks.
Sometimes the meetings will involve coding or presentations. Other times it will just be talking.
COMMUNITY STORIES
Sharon AI, New Era Helium, and PowerForward Energy Solutions are teaming up to build a massive 250MW AI/HPC data center in Ector County, TX, tapping into local natural gas and exploring CO₂ capture tech.
Why it matters: Texas is rapidly becoming a global hotspot for powering AI compute—this deal shows how energy innovation and AI infrastructure are converging in the Permian Basin.
Need-to-know:
Aims to deliver first 100MW of power within 12 months of funding
Backed by over 70 years of power-gen expertise via PowerForward Energy
Project includes natural gas offtake, air permit planning, and CO₂ capture exploration
Learn more here.
UT Austin has released proposed guidelines for how AI should be used in teaching and learning—with a focus on ethics, privacy, and critical thinking.
Why it matters: As AI becomes a core part of higher education, UT is leading the way in building frameworks that prioritize human values alongside tech innovation.
Need-to-know:
The “Responsible AI” framework is open for public feedback until July 31
Developed by a cross-campus working group over six months
Emphasizes academic integrity, transparency, and interdisciplinary collaboration
Learn more here.
Two big wins for Texas tech policy: the Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA) and Texas Cyber Command have officially passed the state legislature, with one already signed into law.
Why it matters: Texas is putting real money and muscle behind cybersecurity and responsible AI leadership, signaling its intent to lead in AI regulation— unless federal law overrides it.
Need-to-know:
$135M approved to create Texas Cyber Command, based in San Antonio
TRAIGA bans government use of AI for social scoring, unauthorized biometric surveillance, and AI-generated deepfakes
Federal “Big Beautiful Bill” could preempt all state AI laws for 10 years if passed
Learn more here.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT
Matthew and Joe are the brains behind Luminal, an open-source ML compiler that auto-generates blazing-fast GPU code for running AI models.
What they’ve built:
A compiler that optimizes model execution for any hardware
It rediscovered Flash Attention on its own before Tri Dao tweeted about it
Now powering a serverless AI hosting platform — just send your model, and they handle the rest
Lucas holds certs from Google & Harvard and offers free strategy calls. Reach out if your business could use sharper data thinking.
Their ask to the community:
Know a startup scaling their inference? Introduce them (and earn free pizza).
Join their Discord: discord.gg/zDwAH2d4
Or email: [email protected] & [email protected]
That’s all for now, folks!
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