Calling all Hackers! | AITX Newsletter #23

Author

AITX Team
June 14, 2024

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 news, a few important things:

  1. June AITX Meetup: 

    IMPORTANT UPDATE:

    Capital Factory is closed at the end of this month so there’s a few changes to the venue for this upcoming meetup:

    New space: The meetup this month will be held at Palm Venture Studios.

    Max Capacity: 100 people

    We would like to thank Palm Venture Studios for being so generous in offering their space for our community this month so we can keep the good times rolling!

    About Palm Venture Studios:

    At Palm Venture Studios, we are dedicated to supporting early-stage companies that are building products with a positive human and planetary impact. Our network of venture studios provides the rescue capital, expertise, and support that startups need to thrive.

    We collaborate with founders and investors to revitalize promising early-stage startups that have not yet reached their potential. We can deploy capital discreetly and quickly, followed by hands-on support to help them excel. Whether it’s preserving the company’s vision, creating something new, or integrating into our existing portfolio, we work with founding teams to define a path to support their growth.

    We look forward to connecting with founders and builders at the AITX Meetup to explore how we can collaborate!

    We will still have the next meetup on Tuesday, June 25th—make sure to sign up here! To stay in the loop on all our monthly meetups and other community organized events, subscribe to our AITX calendar here.

  2. Check out our Community Directory:

    We recently started a 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.

Big Announcements

We are excited to announce our very first AI Hackathon in collaboration with the Austin AI Tinkerers!

Here’s a breakdown of what we’ve got cooking:

Event Details:

Pre-Event Kickoff: Thursday, July 18th | 5:30 - 7:00 pm

Main Event: Saturday, July 20th | 8:30am - 7:00 pm

Registration Form: Here

Agenda

  • ​July 18th, 5 - 7pm

    • ​Team building session & judging criteria overview

  • ​July 20th

    • ​8:30-9am: Intro and Welcome Reception

    • ​9am-4pm: Hackathon Kickoff: Build your Project

    • ​4-5pm: Prelims Judging

    • ​5-5:30pm: Final Judging

    • ​5:30-7pm: Prizes and Networking

​Prizes

​We'll be handing out prizes in the following 3 categories, and dropping more info about the Prize Package in the coming weeks!

  • ​Best Hack - Overall best project will be awarded our best prize

  • ​Best Vision based Hack - Best image/vision application

  • ​Smartest dumb use of AI - Make us laugh at your ingenuity!

Thank you to our ​Sponsors making this event possible!

Lambda was founded in 2012 by AI engineers with published research at top machine learning conferences.

Our mission is to be the leading AI compute platform, supporting developers throughout the entire AI development lifecycle.

At Lambda, we empower AI engineers to easily, securely, and affordably build, test, and deploy AI products at scale. Our offerings include high-performance on-prem GPU hardware and flexible cloud-based GPU solutions.

We aim to make access to powerful computation as effortless and ubiquitous as electricity.

Antler is an on ramp to venture capital and helps you launch your startup from scratch.

We surround you with everything you need to build at lightning speed in our eight-week, in-person residencies. For more information on Antler US 👉 https://www.antler.co/location/us

A Note to the Community:

If you are not able to Hack, but would like to participate as a Judge or Mentor for participating teams, please apply and we will reach out to get you involved. Additionally, we are looking for some additional sponsors to increase the prize pool offered to attendees - if you are interested or have any introductions you can make to interested parties please reach out!

In this week’s edition you’re getting:

5 Upcoming Events

3 Austin AI Community Stories

1 Community Highlight

So let’s jump in!

UPCOMING EVENTS

AI C

  • When: Wednesday, June 19 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST

  • Where: The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. 1305 W Oltorf St · Austin, TX

  • What: A thought-provoking meetup where we dive into the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on our society. Explore the ethical dimensions, technological advancements, and the potential future scenarios that AI presents.

  • When: Monday, June 17 | 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM CST

  • Where: Adlucent LLC 1300 Guadalupe Street #100 · Austin, TX

  • What: Join GDG Cloud Austin and Austin Women Techmakers for this edition of the Google Cloud "Build With AI" series on June 20, 2024. We will learn about getting starting with Gemini on AI studio and Vertex AI In Google Cloud and introduce you to the tools needed and delve into to best practices for fine tuning a model.

  • When: Wednesday, June 19 | 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST

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

  • What: Our keynote speaker this month will be Carson Coots! Carson is a local Austin area Director-Producer who has built a successful business with his company Cognitive Films, crafting documentaries and B2B content for 13 years.

  • When: Thursday, June | 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM CST

  • Where: UTSA San Pedro I

  • What: Calling all Data Scientists! Come hang with our friends out in San Antonio for a night of connection and innovation.

  • When: Wednesday, June 19 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST

  • Where: Lustre Pearl East 114 Linden St · Austin, TX

  • What: This casual gathering is the perfect opportunity for AI and LangChain enthusiasts to come together, hack on labs, and share knowledge in a relaxed environment.

COMMUNITY STORIES

Need-to-know:

  • Despite progress made with recent legislation, law enforcement officials believe there are areas for tighter regulation, such as tracking whether real images of minors were used to feed AI generators.

  • Enacting new laws risks walking a constitutional tightrope, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that banning all computer-generated content that isn't legally obscene is unconstitutional.

  • Experts suggest content-based regulation, bumping up possession of child pornography to a second-degree felony, and defining deepfakes under Texas law to cover a wide range of content.

  • Companies creating or using AI applications can self-regulate by testing models for loopholes and using code to flag and report child pornography.

As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfake technology in creating child pornography grows, Texas lawmakers are seeking ways to tighten regulations and protect minors.

The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice heard testimony from parents, law enforcement, and technology experts on the issue, aiming to tackle the rapidly shifting nature of AI and its potential for abuse.

Learn more here.

Need-to-know:

  • Texas has the infrastructure, talent, business environment, and public policy landscape conducive to responsible AI growth.

  • In 2023, Texas passed House Bill 2060, establishing an artificial intelligence advisory council to evaluate state agency use of AI and make legislative recommendations.

  • Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan established a select committee on AI and Emerging Technology to hold hearings on the private sector's use of AI.

  • The chair of the Texas Innovation and Technology Caucus, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, is working on a gold-standard omnibus bill for responsible AI use in Texas.

  • Texas' biennial legislature allows lawmakers time to learn about the technology and avoid the mistakes of hasty legislative pushes in other states.

As the race for AI legislation in the U.S. is being driven by the states, Texas is stepping up to create a responsible, pro-innovation legislative framework.

While California's approach is riddled with onerous regulations and a focus on "wokeism," Texas lawmakers are taking a thoughtful and collaborative approach to balance innovation with consumer protection and civil liberties.

Learn more here.

Need-to-know:

  • Co-founder Joshua Pellicer shared his experience of using AI to launch a business in just six hours, receiving a buyout offer within two weeks.

  • Pellicer believes that with access to affordable AI tools like ChatGPT and the right knowledge, individuals can compete in every industry worldwide.

  • Austin was chosen as the host city due to its status as a booming tech hub, with Texas already having over four AI jobs for every 100,000 residents.

The first World AI Summit, held in Austin, Texas, aims to help business owners and professionals harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to increase efficiency.

With 18 expert speakers from around the world and hands-on workshops, the summit focused on closing the knowledge gap and discussing a wide range of AI-related topics.

Learn more here.

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT

This week, we'd like to highlight Achyut Karma Boggaram—organizer of the Austin AI Tinkerers meetup.

Boggaram's notable achievements include creating perception software for a tomato leaf pruning robot at IUNU and leading computer vision R&D for package singulation and side-by-side eliminator robot products at MHS.

His expertise and passion for developing innovative AI and robotics solutions have earned him a strong reputation in the industry.

Under Boggaram's leadership, AI Tinkerers Austin has become a thriving community of AI professionals, thought leaders, and innovators.

Checkout their meetup here.

That’s all for now, folks!

If you enjoyed this, consider sharing with a friend by sending them to sign up here.

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