AITX Weekly: AI Laws, Tesla Robotaxis, and more

The latest in AI legislation, local launches, and what's brewing inside the AITX community.

AuthorAuthor

AITX Team & Michael Daigler
June 27, 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:

  1. Upcoming AITX Events: 

  2. To stay in the loop on all our monthly meetups and other community organized events, subscribe to our AITX calendar here.

  3. 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.

Quick Shoutout: Build with PostHog

AITX member Kliment Minchev is starting a PostHog community group — a space for builders and experimenters to connect, share, and grow together.

If you're using PostHog (or curious about it), this is a great way to plug into a focused group within our broader community.

👉 Sign up here
📬 For more info, reach out to Kliment via the form, LinkedIn, or Twitter/X.

In this week’s edition you’re getting:

🤠 Meetup Recap

5 Upcoming Events

3 AI Community Stories

So let’s jump in!

Austin AITX Meetup Recap

AITX Austin Monthly Meetup, July 26, 2025

We had an amazing turnout for our June meetup with 4 demos.

Let’s see who they are:

A relationship optimization platform designed to help entrepreneurs and communities 10x their network and engagement. The goal? Make it easier for ambitious founders to build meaningful, high-leverage connections.

An AI-powered travel hack assistant that automates savings by scanning emails, promo codes, loyalty points, and forgotten cashback across platforms. The goal is personalized, automatic travel savings, all handled by AI agents.

They’re also hiring a founding engineer so reach out if that’s you!

The app is available for iOS and Android:

The CodeLexica team demoed their code understanding platform that connects to your GitHub repo, processes the codebase, and uses LLMs to let teams ask high-level, natural language questions about architecture, code quality, onboarding docs, and more.

An AI assistant platform built to take the pain out of outbound sales. It automates human-like, omnichannel outreach across email, calls, and more—handling the boilerplate work reps usually dread.

UPCOMING EVENTS

  • When: Tuesday, July 8 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST

  • Where: Microsoft Office Houston 750 Town and Country Blvd #1000 · Houston, TX

  • What: Join MongoDB and Microsoft experts as we explore how MongoDB Atlas on Azure supports the next generation of AI systems, especially those driven by agentic architecture.​​

  • When: Wednesday, July 16 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST

  • Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX

  • What: The session would explore key challenges, security best practices, and innovative approaches to ensuring trustworthy agent interactions within AI ecosystems. Also we will discuss the upcoming trends around protecting MCP servers as well as the initiates by certain vendors on the space of Agentic Authentication.​

  • When: Thursday, July 10 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST

  • Where: Atlassian 1401 E 5th St. building 2 · Austin, TX

  • What: Atlassian is generously hosting this low-key gathering where we’ll create space to share experiences, talk through career challenges, and support one another in navigating the unique dynamics of our field.

  • 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: Wednesday, July 2 | 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM CST

  • Where: Capital Factory Capital Factory 701 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701, USA · Austin, TX

  • What: A space where stakeholders from every corner of the healthcare ecosystem — including researchers, clinicians, startups, vendors, sponsors, CROs, and innovators — can connect, collaborate, and support each other.

COMMUNITY STORIES

Sen. Ted Cruz is pushing a new federal provision that would block states like Texas from regulating AI for 10 years if they want access to a proposed $500M federal AI fund.

Why it matters: Texas just passed bipartisan laws banning harmful AI uses like deepfake child exploitation. Cruz’s proposal would prevent enforcement of those laws if the state wants federal AI funding.

Need-to-know:

  • Only states that agree not to regulate AI would qualify for the fund.

  • The proposal is part of the federal budget bill, with a July 4 deadline.

  • Critics say it’s a “federal overreach” that forces states to choose between consumer protections and infrastructure dollars.

  • Texas could lose $3.3B in broadband expansion funding under this clause.

Learn more here.

Gov. Greg Abbott just signed H.B. 149, a new law banning AI systems that intentionally discriminate, promote self-harm, or encourage criminal activity—marking a major step in Texas' approach to AI ethics.

Why it matters: While some free-market advocates say the law may slow innovation, supporters believe it sets important safeguards as AI becomes more embedded in daily life.

Need-to-know:

  • Applies to AI models that act with intent to harm or manipulate users

  • Inspired by (but less restrictive than) Colorado’s landmark AI discrimination law

  • Free-market think tanks urged a veto, fearing it might hinder AI growth

  • Could become a model for center-right AI governance in other states

Learn more here.

Tesla officially rolled out its first paid robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas. This marks a major milestone in Elon Musk’s long-promised self-driving vision.

Why it matters: This is the first time Tesla vehicles, with no driver behind the wheel, have carried paying customers. It's also happening under new Texas laws designed to regulate the coming wave of autonomous vehicles.

Need-to-know:

  • ~10 cars are operating in South Congress, with safety riders in the passenger seat

  • Rides cost a flat $4.20, available only to invited users

  • Tesla avoids bad weather, complex intersections, and under-18 passengers

  • New Texas AV law (effective Sept. 1) requires a state permit for driverless cars and gives officials the power to revoke access if safety concerns arise

  • Tesla uses only cameras (no radar or lidar), bucking industry norms

The real question… is it better than Waymo?

Learn more here.

That’s all for now, folks!

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