IntoTexas AI Podcast

Three AI deals with Texas ties landed within about a week of each other, and each shows AI money at a very different stage.Dallas-based Disruptive raised a $10 billion flagship fund, the largest venture fund in Texas history, to back roughly 10 late-stage companies with checks of up to $1 billion each. Crusoe lined up a $700 million facility with Neuberger Specialty Finance to buy behind-the-meter gas generators for its AI data centers. And near Silverton in Briscoe County, Soluna and Applied Digital are working to close a partnership on a planned 50-megawatt AI data center that would run on wind and grid power. That deal still has to clear a tax abatement vote, signed documents, and a December deadline.In this episode of IntoTexas AI, Shannon Belew looks past the headline numbers to what the documents actually say: who’s carrying the risk, what the money really buys, and what still has to happen before anyone sees a return. She also covers what this means for founders competing against billion-dollar checks, where Texas suppliers fit in the physical buildout, and why a letter of intent, a signed lease, and an operating facility are three very different things.If you’re a Texas business leader trying to make sense of the AI buildout, this one’s for you.Subscribe to IntoTexas AI for more on how AI is reshaping business across Texas.Hashtags#TexasAI #AIFunding #AIInfrastructure #DataCenters #VentureCapital #Dallas #IntoTexasAI

AI can help emergency teams process information faster. But when lives are on the line, who owns the decision—and how do you build trust before disaster strikes?Recorded at Disasters Expo USA in Houston, this episode of IntoTexas AI features Rob Borse, whose nearly 30-year career includes Dallas Fire-Rescue and city government. He joins host Shannon Belew to discuss where AI can strengthen emergency preparedness and response, why human judgment remains essential, and what responsible adoption requires.From flood mapping and resource forecasting to sorting incoming reports in an emergency operations center, we explore how AI can support faster, better-informed decisions. We also discuss the risks of overreliance, the importance of public trust, and why automating a flawed process can simply make a bad process run faster.For emergency managers, public-sector leaders, and businesses building their own resilience plans, the starting question is the same: What problem are you trying to solve?Explore more IntoTexas AI episodes: IntoTexas AI Podcast | Texas Business & AI InsightsEpisode 51 | Hosted by Shannon Belew#EmergencyManagement #ArtificialIntelligence #DisasterPreparedness #AITrust #IntoTexasAI

For most of us, the weather forecast decides whether we grab a jacket. For energy traders, like the ones James Caron works with, it moves millions of dollars a day. Can AI weather models make both kinds of calls more reliable?Recorded live at Disasters Expo USA in Houston, this episode of the IntoTexas AI podcast features James Caron, a certified consulting meteorologist and Director of Meteorological Operations at Atmospheric G2. James started as a weather officer in the U.S. Air Force, then worked as a commodity meteorologist on Wall Street. Today he forecasts for the energy traders who make Texas the center of that market.We start with Winter Storm Uri: what it did to the grid and to energy prices, and why lead time is the thing that matters most next time. Then we look at how AI weather models work and why they’re so much cheaper to run than legacy supercomputer models like the GFS and ECMWF. James explains why he thinks Google DeepMind outperformed the traditional models on both track and intensity for Hurricane Isaias.He’s also candid about how we evaluate new models. He names the AI models he trusts, including Google DeepMind, Microsoft Aurora, and ECMWF’s AIFS ensemble. And he says that when a vendor touts its own “proprietary AI” weather model, it should prove itself before you rely on it. If you’re in emergency management, energy, logistics, or running a Texas business that weather can disrupt, this one’s worth your time.Hashtags: #IntoTexasAI #AIForecasting #WeatherAI #GoogleDeepMind #ERCOT #EnergyTrading #EmergencyManagement #DisasterResponse #GovTech

A cyberattack turns supermarket refrigeration systems against their owners. A hurricane puts AI weather forecasts to the test. Both raise a practical question: How do we keep essential services running when disaster strikes?From the Disasters Expo in Houston, Shannon Belew explores how artificial intelligence is being used—and tested—to help communities and businesses prepare, respond and recover.This episode examines Google DeepMind’s role in Hurricane Isaias forecasting, new MIT–Microsoft research on longer-range weather predictions, Texas A&M’s disaster-response tools, and GiveDirectly’s use of AI-assisted damage assessment to help target hurricane cash relief.We also look at the limits: why connected equipment still needs basic cybersecurity, why emergency information must be checked, and why human judgment remains essential.Subscribe to IntoTexas AI for upcoming interviews from the Disasters Expo and more on how AI is reshaping Texas business and everyday life.#ArtificialIntelligence #DisasterPreparedness #DisasterRecovery #EmergencyManagement #Cybersecurity #TexasAI #IntoTexasAI

The next big AI advantage may not be a smarter model. It may be AI that understands exactly how your industry works. In this episode of the IntoTexas AI podcast, Shannon Belew looks at three Texas companies betting on specialized, industry-specific AI: UpSmith in Dallas, building AI for HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors; Scaffold in Austin, connecting the systems behind residential construction; and Circuit in Austin, turning decades of manufacturing know-how into answers technicians can use in seconds. We also look at the other end of the spectrum: HubSpot's restructuring around delivering outcomes with AI, and what happens when the companies that built the last generation of business software collide with the ones built for this one. Plus new Gartner research on where agentic AI ROI is coming from, and Dallas Fed data on how deeply Texas companies are really using AI. If you run a business, you'll come away with three practical moves for deciding where specialized AI belongs in your company. Read more on the IntoTexas AI blog: AI Business Insights Blog | IntoTexas Subscribe for weekly AI news and strategy for Texas businesses. #VerticalAI #AIAgents #TexasAI #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIForBusiness #IntoTexas