Agents, Open Models & the Real Cost of AI: Texas News + AI Conference Recap

Texas wants the AI buildout, but who pays for it? This week on IntoTexas AI, I break down the launch of the Lone Star Infrastructure Coalition, the industry's push to win over Texas communities on data centers. I also cover Crusoe's wind-powered Google campus in the Panhandle and Kyndryl's new AI Innovation Lab in Frisco.Then I bring you what I learned at The AI Conference in San Francisco, where more than 5,000 builders and leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, NVIDIA and more gathered to talk about what's actually working in AI right now.You'll hear takeaways from five standout talks:Peter Norvig (Stanford HAI) on what comes after the AI breakthrough, and why AI is still "jagged" Jonathan LaCour (CDW) on why 88% of companies use AI but fewer than 7% see real financial results Anthony Stevens (IBM) on agent security and the "harness" that keeps AI agents in check Di Jin (Nebius) on why post-training is the new competitive moat Chase Norton (Faros) on when open models are good enough, and when frontier AI is worth the premiumThe big theme: the companies that win won't be the ones with the fanciest model. They'll be the ones that put AI inside real workflows, control costs, build in guardrails and turn their own business knowledge into an advantage. That goes for every mid-market business in Texas.Deeper dives on each talk are coming soon on the blog.🔗 Learn more: IntoTexas.com#TexasAI #AIConference #ArtificialIntelligence #AIAgents #OpenSourceAI #DataCenters #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy #TexasBusiness #IntoTexasAI