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Texas and AI, reported through the public record. Read the story, explore the visual edition, follow the sources.
Only 29% of Texas school and district leaders reported a student AI policy, and Texas 2036 counts Texas outside 42 states with some form of school AI guidance
Texas school leaders reported AI in classrooms far more often than a written policy for it, Texas 2036 says. By its count Texas has no statewide school AI guidance.
Over $19 million for a Lubbock computing cluster, and the announcement gives no install date
The state's chip fund is backing a Texas Tech computing cluster in Lubbock with over $19 million. The announcement gives no date for when the cluster will run.
All 245 Large Loads answered ERCOT, and cooling questions had the highest N/A rate
Every Large Load answered ERCOT's data center questionnaire. Cooling questions drew N/A answers at the highest rate, and a final report is targeted for December 10th.
Two names hold 74 percent of the 3,164 automated vehicles on the TxDMV report
The state's first report on driverless authorizations lists 17 companies. Two of them, Waymo and Tesla Robotaxi, account for most of the vehicles.
Brownsville let the land go, and Starbase hears SpaceX's tax abatement December 9th
Brownsville let SpaceX's land go in August. Starbase now hears a tax abatement for a gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility there on December 9th.
64 Frontera CPU nodes, 8 Vista GPU nodes, almost the same speed by one lab's account
TACC retired Frontera in October. A UT Southwestern lab says a simulation that ran on 64 Frontera CPU nodes got almost the same speed on eight Vista GPU nodes.
Texas A&M screened 630,003 protein pairs with AlphaFold-Multimer
Texas A&M scientists ran an AI structure tool across every pairing of 1123 curated mitochondrial proteins and kept 2,895 likely partners out of 630,003.
Dallas AI cameras on brush trucks flag concerns, not violations
Cameras on Dallas sanitation trucks scanned 10,000 properties. A city memo counts 57 citations, issued only after an in-person inspection.
ExxonMobil has three automated drilling rigs in the Permian and plans more
ExxonMobil says three of its Permian drilling rigs now run with robotic pipe handling. It plans automated rigs on about half its Permian fleet by 2028.
Applied Optoelectronics says power is one reason its 2027 expansion will take longer
Applied Optoelectronics, a Sugar Land laser chip maker, says its 2027 expansion in the United States will take longer because getting power is taking longer than expected.
Permian Resources names two AI tools and prints no measured result for either
Permian Resources told investors it now runs an AI system that watches its artificial lift and feeds its subsurface data to language models. The release prints no measured result for either tool.
Aurora's driverless trucks at the scale, and the letter's own numbers
Aurora says its driverless trucks can now work through a weigh station on their own. The same letter puts its truck build about six weeks behind plan.
A phone on a vehicle window will survey San Antonio's loose dogs
San Antonio will repeat its count of loose dogs with a phone on a vehicle window and object detection software. Automated and human review will check the clips, and the survey is a sample.
Texas A&M plans an AI foundry for new alloys
Texas A&M plans an automated lab where robots mix, melt and test new alloys. A separate NSF platform is funded for six years and open to outside researchers.
League City Proposition A, the November 3rd vote on Flock cameras
League City votes Tuesday on its Flock license plate cameras. The ballot calls the question nonbinding, yet the council has already directed removal if voters say no.
ChatGPT Enterprise and Darwin AI. Plano's $390,000 AI agenda item
Plano's council took up one consent agenda item for ChatGPT Enterprise, the Darwin AI platform, Microsoft licenses and a reserve. Its minutes note says approved.
The load went to the wind. An AI data center plan beside Briscoe Wind
Soluna and Applied Digital plan a joint AI data center on land across the road from the Briscoe Wind Farm's substation. Closing waits on a Briscoe County tax abatement.
The drones came first. Drone hubs in Round Rock and Rowlett
Zipline started taking drone delivery orders in Round Rock from a hub outside city limits. The city says its zoning doesn't specifically cover drone hubs. Rowlett wrote its rule first.
233 data centers never returned the water survey
Of 334 data centers in the Tribune's count, 233 never returned the water board's mailed survey. ERCOT's new request carries the board's questions to data centers not yet energized.
Tesla's Texas vehicle and Megapack rows read Production. The robot row reads Construction
Tesla's quarterly capacity table lists its Texas vehicle and Megapack rows as Production. The Texas row for Optimus, its humanoid robot, reads Construction.
One added line sometimes moved the higher risk patient back
UT Southwestern researchers gave three open source AI models matched pairs of emergency patients. One added stigmatizing line sometimes moved the higher risk patient back.
Trained on short, popular posts, models skipped steps
Researchers at Texas A&M, UT Austin and Purdue trained four language models on doses of short, popular posts. Reasoning scores fell as the dose rose, and repair did not bring them back.
Lockheed Martin and Hadrian's 24 machine cell for Grand Prairie, expected in early 2027
Lockheed Martin says Hadrian will bring a 24 machine cell to its Grand Prairie plant. Hadrian says its own factories combine AI and robotics. The release never says what AI would do in this cell.
Houston Methodist's operating room AI and a study tying it to about 25 more cases a month
Houston Methodist put four AI cameras in each room of a 15 room cardiothoracic suite. A study ties them to more cases a month and names its own limits.
How USDA uses AI to pick screwworm surveillance and sterile fly release sites in Texas
USDA uses AI models to pick where Texas surveils, traps and releases sterile flies against New World screwworm. Its own scientists say the models miss one thing.
SPACER, an AI model from MD Anderson, on what may keep T cells out of tumors
An MD Anderson AI model reads gene activity across intact tumor tissue. It points at mucin, a sugar coat many cancers make, as a barrier that may keep T cells out.
Anyone can ride Waymo to the San Antonio airport now. The flood fix is still listed in development
Waymo opened its San Antonio robotaxis to anyone with its app, the airport included. Its federal flood recall still lists the remedy as under development.
A trial court struck an AI transcript. Texas's top court weighs it
A Montgomery County court struck a deposition transcript made with AI because no certified reporter prepared it. The Supreme Court of Texas heard the dispute on October 6th.
UT San Antonio's flood sensor runs its AI on the device
UT San Antonio built a solar flood sensor that judges flood risk on the device itself. The release reports a validation score and a parts cost, and names no site and no real flood.
West Texas A&M's research feedlot and its one AI sentence
West Texas A&M won a USDA grant for a research feedlot near Canyon. The release says new methods can be tested with AI and names no tool, vendor or result.
Austin Community College is writing its AI policy
Austin Community College says it is writing what it calls its first-ever AI policy. Its AI site already links a use policy PDF marked for faculty and staff. The post names no vote.
Asked inside the chart. UTMB's OpenEvidence account beside Texas law
UTMB says more than half of its clinicians use OpenEvidence inside its health record. A Texas statute sets a disclosure rule for AI used to diagnose. UTMB's release never uses that word.
Software on the radio. Merlin's account of the Project Nexus kickoff
Merlin says it demonstrated AI-powered air traffic control communications at TxDOT's Project Nexus kickoff. The state's and the FAA's accounts of the day do not name it.
The tax break came first. Saronic's Brownsville shipyard
Saronic broke ground on its Port Alpha shipyard at the Port of Brownsville. Cameron County had approved its tax break months earlier, before the company said it had picked a site.
664 acres, staked in feet. Taylor's data center terms
Taylor published the terms of a proposed data center campus agreement before the council vote. They set its buildings, noise and water against what would apply without the agreement.
12 of 120. The UT System's health AI pilots
The UT System's health care AI laboratory funded twelve pilots for its hospitals and medical schools. Only the no-show entry at UTHealth Houston states what it already saved.
The state board said no
The state board voted down Alpha School's AI charter bid. Emails show Texas Education Agency staff helped its platform reach district pilots in Houston, Aldine and Fort Davis.
Not closed yet.
Kodiak AI named Interstate 45 from Dallas to Houston its first driverless truck lane. The readiness figure it publishes is its own account of a safety case it says it hasn't closed.
Software pointed at a gene. Flies ran the test.
An AI tool flagged a gene for one Texas child with no diagnosis. Families found through a network and fruit fly experiments made it a likely diagnosis, not a certain one.
Same pole. Two councils. Texas cities decide on Flock cameras
The state built a network of Flock plate reader cameras with a fee on auto insurance, then paused the money. Texas towns are now deciding whether to pay for the cameras themselves.
A machine reads it first. How Texas scores written STAAR
An automated engine scores the longer written answers on English language STAAR tests first. People read a quarter or more, and any answer a district asks to have rescored.
813 gas generators for one AI data center, and who pays
Two judges recommend approving El Paso Electric's gas plant for Meta's data center only if its other customers are held harmless for its life.
Agreed to count AI fire detections, SPS counted cameras
Xcel Energy's Texas utility agreed to report AI camera fire detections under its approved plan. Its annual report answered that line with a count of cameras.
Pinnacle, RealPage and a rent recommended overnight
A proposed federal judgment would bar a Frisco apartment manager from rent software fed by rivals' data. It binds one landlord, and the public can comment first.
Nobody at the wheel on Interstate 45
Two companies are moving toward driverless freight between Dallas and Houston. The state permission they need carries no fee, does not expire and can't require crash history.
The pod checks the spot
The FAA takes comment until October 11th, 2026 on a draft that assesses letting Zipline fly delivery drones over five Texas metros. In it, a pod on a line judges the drop spot itself.
Sought by
A permit halt is scoped by who asks for the permit. It waits on two audits, and the record states the scope of only one of them.
Once a month, a truck takes a picture of your house.
Dallas put AI cameras on its brush trucks and said in December what the program would not be. The friction is a letter that is formally not a warning and reads like one.
Aimed at small systems. Texas has 4,749.
A federal award aims predictive digital twins at small and mid-sized water systems. Texas has 4,749 active community water systems and 3,579 of them serve fewer than 3,301 people.
Texas already had the power to ask.
Texas did not pass a new law to put data center water use on the record. It told the water board to enforce the one already written.
Who writes the county's record?
AI appeared on the county's agendas for police reports, surveillance and official minutes. The published minutes leave the outcomes unresolved.
Software drafts your lab result note.
Memorial Hermann clinicians use AI drafts to explain test results. The system reports fewer follow-up messages, but its published figures do not establish a controlled comparison.
It was built to not tell you.
UT Arlington is developing an AI tutor designed to prompt reasoning instead of supply answers. Related police training has separate funding, and reported capabilities are not yet outcome measurements.
This room can move a generator.
ERCOT warns that rapid changes in AI training loads could fatigue generators. Its proposed limit on power swings was still a draft, distinct from reliability requirements already in force.
17 finished. None approved to energize.
ERCOT says some large loads have finished every process except approval to energize. Batch Zero classifications still depend on verification and model requirements.
Children are not small adults.
Radiologists with Texas affiliations warn that pediatric imaging is underrepresented in AI research. A separate MRI study illustrates why performance must be tested beyond the original patient group.
Texas State University's AI pavement inspection method
Texas State is moving an AI pavement-inspection project into another phase. The method pairs images with depth data, while the research still calls for human verification.
Texas put AI in a money class.
Texas's financial literacy standards include AI-assisted career research and scrutiny of algorithmic recommendations. Students are asked to question the tools as well as use them.
Certified by its maker. Audited that day.
Federal regulators opened an audit of Tesla's Cybercab certification as commercial deployment began in Austin. The inquiry examines the basis for certification, not an announced recall.
When does this patient go home?
A Houston Methodist study found case managers estimated discharge dates better as patients neared departure. The comparison also had limits that prevent a simple verdict on all discharge AI.
Austin's order names six kinds of equipment.
Austin directed new parks security equipment while adding an AI restriction. That resolution also points back to the city's broader surveillance review and privacy requirements.
Frontera's queues close October 1st.
TACC announced a permanent closure of Frontera's computing queues. Its guide preserves access for moving data out, but does not promise an allocation transfer to a successor.
71 percent from one country.
A Houston-led team will use AI to search for new magnet materials. The supply-chain case is real, but an award to search is not evidence of a better magnet.
Tested on the faces walking out.
Federal officials tested facial-image capture on pedestrians leaving Texas at Progreso. Their account describes the equipment and an opt-out lane, but publishes no accuracy or error rates.
VISION is No. 66. Both documents say will.
Texas A&M's VISION has a measured world ranking. Its own documentation still limits access to an invitation-only beta, separating demonstrated computing power from general availability.
The hearing came off. The charge did not move.
A Senate hearing on AI and the Texas workforce was canceled and relisted. The change in schedule did not answer the committee's questions about adoption and its effects.
The fee, the network, and who was reading it
A statewide funding pause put Flock cameras back in question. Reporting on the camera network and Pflugerville's shutdown shows why funding, access and operation are separate issues.
The rooms are named and the consent procedure is not, NSF award 2535195
A federally funded UT Austin center plans to study robots in occupied homes, workplaces and care settings. Its consent and opt-out procedures were still to be developed.
The order stands and the question underneath it is open, Docket 59220
Texas approved an Armstrong County net-metering arrangement with full-curtailment conditions. Ensign challenged those conditions, but its rehearing request is not an amended order.
Two releases. Neither names a room.
Amazon and Texas announced an Austin robotics factory. The releases describe jobs and investment, but they are not a local approval record or a hearing notice.
The billion buys no building. UT Dell Medical Center, Phase 1
The first funded phase of UT Dell Medical Center is early work and site preparation. Its building-cost line is zero, and the AI language comes from a separate university account.
Fifteen actions, and whether the instrument binds
Texas communities are using ordinances, resolutions and incentive votes to respond to data centers. Similar headlines can conceal very different powers and outcomes.
The rule never says data center.
A proposed Texas grid service would buy demand reductions from large electricity users. Its definition turns on a site's power demand, not whether it is called a data center.
Texas authorized what was already driving
Texas created a required authorization for commercial driverless vehicles after autonomous freight was already operating. A Senate hearing asks what deployment has meant for safety.
The ballot that decides nothing
League City's camera referendum asks for voters' preferences without binding the council. Pflugerville's proposed AI charter language would create a different kind of obligation.
Batch Zero, and the calendar with a hole in it
ERCOT suspended a Batch Zero notification deadline after the governor ordered a data center audit. The signed directive and its press release describe the gate differently.
Future 2, and the rule not yet written
Houston ISD's Future 2 model puts AI literacy beside screen-free experiences. The school schedule and the district's unfinished AI policy answer different questions.
Terafab, Grimes County
SpaceX's proposed semiconductor plant brings state money and school district agreements to Grimes County. The announcements are clearer than the public agreement register.