Meta Hackathon Recap, Plus things to come...

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AITX Team
November 29, 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.

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  1. November AITX Meetups: 

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In this week’s edition you’re getting:

🦙 Hackathon Recap

5 Upcoming Events

3 AI Community Stories

1 Community Highlight

So let’s jump in!

ATX Llama Impact Hackathon Recap

Friday Night Reception

Last Friday, we had an amazing reception at Meta’s office with:

  • 7 AI Demos + Meta’s Demos of their Oculus Quest and Meta Ray-Bans

  • A panel on Open Source AI

7 AI Demos:

  1. Groq: demonstrated inference performance of their Language Processing Unit through language and computer vision demos using Meta's Llama models. They featured voice demos and real-time interactive applications for stock analysis and text editing.

  2. Levo.ai: used Llama to enhance API documentation generation and conduct vulnerability analysis for their API security platform.

  3. Finetune: demonstrated agent optimization by representing agents as graphs and using Llama to provide optimization suggestions based on compressed execution feedback.

  4. Cofactor: leveraged Llama to generate health insurance appeal letters and justifications for coding and medical decisions.

  5. Llama's Garden (by Shep Bryan): generated AI-powered digital knowledge bases, creating interconnected notes and insights on user-selected topics.

  6. Toolhouse: presented an infrastructure platform connecting AI to applications. They used Llama for model fine-tuning to build cost-effective developer tools for AI function calling.

  7. Predibase: showcased efficient fine-tuning and serving of open-source models. They demonstrated Llama model fine-tuning that outperformed GPT-4 at 5-10x lower costs, serving multiple organizations.

The Panelists:

​Julian Saks - CEO, Finetune

​Mark Heaps - Chief Tech Evangelist & VP of Brand, Groq

​John Bockstanz - Innovation Policy Manager, Meta Panel Moderator

​Kal Clark, MD - Cofounder & CEO, Zauron Labs

Hackathon Weekend

🏆️ Winners

🥇First Place: Simplifill

🥈 Second Place: ParentIQ

🥉 Third Place: GuardianAI

We’d like to thank Meta and Cerebral Valley for being such great partners for last weekend.

We’d also like to thank Groq, Datastax, and Akash Network for bringing extra prizes and help to the hackers last weekend.

UPCOMING EVENTS

  • When: Wednesday, December 4 | 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM CST

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

  • What: Join Fernando Labastida, experienced content marketer, speaker, and author, for an eye-opening workshop on harnessing the power of AI to create high-impact virtual summits.

  • When: Thursday, December 5 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM CST

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

  • What: Women in Data Science and AI holiday meetup at Atlassian! This is the perfect opportunity to unwind, connect, and celebrate the season with fellow data science ladies.

  • When: Wednesday, December 4 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST

  • Where: Kinda Tropical 3501 E. 7Th · Austin, TX

  • What: Wrap up the year with creativity, collaboration, community, and a bit of holiday magic! Our Hacky Hour is the perfect opportunity to experiment, brainstorm, and work on fun projects with fellow LangChain and AI enthusiasts.

  • When: Thursday, December 5 | 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM CST

  • Where: Capital Factory 701 Brazos St, 16th Floor · Austin, TX

  • What: mini-hack session for developers all over the Austin area to build cool stuff related to AI.

  • When: Sunday, December 1 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM CST

  • Where: Unchained art Gallery 1601 E.1st · Austin , TX

  • What: This show’s curator & AI Art columnist, Morton, will be present to answer questions about generative AI & AI artwork on show

COMMUNITY STORIES

Texas CIO Amanda Crawford reports strong momentum in the state's AI governance efforts, with the AI Advisory Council preparing to release key guidelines and recommendations this December after five productive meetings.

Why it matters: This positions Texas as a leader in responsible AI adoption at the state level, with practical guidelines that could influence policy nationwide while supporting local innovation.

Need-to-know:

  • Council has engaged diverse stakeholders including cities, counties, police, higher ed and private sector

  • December report will provide AI guidelines and recommendations for 2025 legislative priorities

  • Texas taking proactive approach to AI governance amid federal inaction

Learn more here.

UT Austin researchers have developed an AI model that can generate accurate street-view images from audio recordings alone, achieving 80% accuracy in human validation tests.

Why it matters: This breakthrough showcases Texas's leadership in innovative AI applications and brings us closer to understanding how machines can process multisensory information like humans do.

Need-to-know:

  • Model trained on audio-visual pairs from cities across North America, Asia, and Europe

  • System accurately captures key visual elements including greenery, buildings, and lighting conditions

  • Research demonstrates machines can now replicate human audio-visual perception capabilities

Learn more here.

Texas Pacific Land Corporation (TPL) has seen its stock value triple in the past year as investors bet on West Texas becoming a major hub for AI data centers, driven by the region's abundant natural gas and land resources.

Why it matters: This highlights Texas's emerging role in AI infrastructure development, as the state's energy resources and available land position it to potentially become a major hub for powering the AI revolution.

Need-to-know:

  • TPL owns 873,000 acres in West Texas (larger than Yosemite National Park)

  • Company market cap has reached $35B despite having just 100 employees

  • Big Tech's estimated $200B spending on AI infrastructure in 2025 could drive U.S. data center power demand up 160% by 2030

Learn more here.

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COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT

This week, we're spotlighting Amanda Lu, Policy Program Manager at Meta.

She was integral to helping organize all parties involved, making last weekend a reality.

Here’s her message to the community:

I'd like to thank all the AITX community members who participated the event and showed their passion in Open source AI.

I am impressed and inspired by the AITX community.

Grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow with the community together!

We couldn’t have made last weekend happen without her so we thank her for all the work she’s put in.

You can connect with Amanda on LinkedIn here.

That’s all for now, folks!

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