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Join the 2nd ATX AI Community Hackathon!
Join Our 3-Track Hackathon: Open Source, Agents, and Local Hacks
AITX Team
January 24, 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:
January AITX Meetups:
Our upcoming meetups:
Austin Meetup: January 28, 2025 | 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:
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.
2nd Austin AI Community Hackathon! 🤠
AITX is excited to collaborate with WebAI to throw the second Austin AI Community Hackathon!
When: From February 28 - March 1
Details:
There will be 3 tracks for the hackathon:
Open Source – Building tools and tech that enables easier access to open source AI.
Agents – Creating AI agents capable of independent, meaningful action.
Local Hacks – Building applications on top of infrastructure built by Austin-based AI companies.
There’s more…
It'll all culminate in Hack Fair!
The Hack Fair will be a science-fair style showcase open to the broader Austin community where participants will demo their projects to the public for a chance to win the Community Choice Prize.
Sign Up!
If you and/or anyone you know is interested, register here 👇️
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: Thursday, February 13, 2025 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM CST
Where: 701 Brazos St 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What: Artist and the Age of AI meetups are a warm, collegial, and inviting space. All backgrounds, disciplines, and levels of experience will be respected and given space to express their perspectives, opinions, and concerns about the current state and future of the arts, AI, and technology.
When: Wednesday, February 5 | 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St · Austin, TX
What: You’ll discover how Sara developed LizzieAI, an AI-powered account executive for her consultancy, using Zapier, Notion, and Slack.
When: Friday, January 31 | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM CST
Where: Cloudflare Austin 106 E. 6th Street, Suite 400 · Austin, tx
What: Discover cutting-edge AI advancements in this session, including a demo on creating 1-click agents and the simplicity of embedding chatbots, an exploration of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAGs) with insights into how indexing works and its powerful applications, and more.
When: Saturday, January 25 | 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM CST
Where: AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center 1900 University Avenue · Austin, TX
What: Visit datadaytexas.com for full details and speaker list.
When: Wednesday, February 5, 2025 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM CST
Where: ACC - RGC 3000 1218 West Avenue · Austin, TX
What: Get ready for insightful showcases and engaging panels that will provide you with practical knowledge and inspiration!
COMMUNITY STORIES
A massive $500 billion AI research initiative called the Stargate Project, backed by Trump and led by Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank, has been announced for Abilene, Texas, drawing public criticism from Elon Musk.
Why it matters: This rare split between Trump and Musk highlights growing tensions in Texas's AI landscape as major tech players compete for dominance in the state.
Need-to-know:
Project aims to build out nation's AI infrastructure over next four years
Oracle already leasing 200-megawatt data center in Abilene
Musk questions funding, claims SoftBank has "well under $10B secured"
Conflict stems from Musk's ongoing legal battle with OpenAI's Sam Altman
Learn more here.
The University of Texas at Dallas has opened a new Artificial Intelligence & Analytics Laboratory at its Jindal School of Management, powered by a $100,000 gift from Credit Union of Texas for advanced GPU workstations.
Why it matters: This collaboration between industry and academia creates new opportunities for AI research and education while building a talent pipeline for Texas's growing financial technology sector.
Need-to-know:
Lab features 10 GPU-powered workstations for AI applications and research
Will be expanded when Phase 3 of Jindal School complex completes in 2026
Partnership aims to enhance financial industry customer service through AI
Lab will support both student education and faculty research projects
Learn more here.
Texas Senator Charles Schwertner has filed Senate Bill 815 to prohibit health insurance companies from using AI to delay, deny, or modify claims without human oversight.
Why it matters: This legislation could set a national precedent for regulating AI in healthcare decisions as insurance companies increasingly automate their processes.
Need-to-know:
Bill would require human healthcare professionals to review claim denials
Gives Texas Department of Insurance authority to audit health plans for compliance
Aligns with American Medical Association's call for more AI oversight
Responds to concerns about AI being used to deny Medicare Advantage claims
Learn more here.
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COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT
This week’s highlight is Jose Daniel Castillo.
Here’s a bit about him:
I am a Computer Science Undergraduate at UTSA. Im working on Defect Detection in Nuclear Fuel Fabrication. Defect detection in nuclear fuel is essential for ensuring safety standards when using nuclear energy. The research I'm currently working on automates the defect detection process, addressing the limitations of manual methods, which are prone to human error and can be time-consuming. Current work involves few shot learning techniques and using off-the-shelf models.
Connect with him here.
That’s all for now, folks!
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