🤖 HackAI Newsletter — Late January 2026

Missed our last update? Read the January 6th newsletter →

🗓️ Upcoming Events

• 🚀 Applied AI Live #1 — Thursday, Jan 29 at Antler VC — Our friends at Applied AI Society (co-hosted by AITX) are launching something special. Featuring remarks from Travis Oliphant (creator of NumPy & SciPy), a real case study on making money in applied AI consulting, and a LIVE architecture session with a real business owner. Great if you want to learn how to monetize AI consulting. Space is limited! RSVP on Luma →

• 🎤 HackAI Meetup — Thursday, Feb 5 — Our monthly gathering returns from 6–8pm at Capital Factory (Voltron Room)! Lightning talks, AI demos, and great vibes with Austin's AI community. RSVP here →

🌐 Big AI Headlines

💰 New: xAI Raises $20B at $230B Valuation

Elon Musk's AI company just closed the largest AI funding round ever. Nvidia, Cisco, and sovereign wealth funds backed the deal. Grok 5 is now in training. Learn more →

🏥 New: ChatGPT Health Launches

OpenAI launched a dedicated health experience—connect Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, and medical records for personalized health conversations. 230 million users already ask ChatGPT about health weekly. Learn more →

🧠 Update: OpenAI's GPT-5.2 Momentum

Last time: OpenAI dropped GPT-5.2 with 400K token context and 30% fewer hallucinations. Now: They've released GPT-5.2-Codex—their most capable coding model yet, achieving state-of-the-art on benchmarks. Plus a new budget-friendly "ChatGPT Go" tier with 10x more messages than free. Learn more →

⚡ Update: Google Gemini 3 Flash Goes Live

Last time: We covered Google's Gemini 3 Flash announcement. Now: It's fully available—scoring 90.4% on GPQA Diamond and processing 1 trillion+ tokens daily at just $0.50/million. Live in Gemini app and AI Studio. Learn more →

🎬 New: Disney Invests $1B in OpenAI

Sora can now generate videos with 200+ Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters. The House of Mouse meets the house of AI. Learn more →

🤖 Update: NVIDIA's Physical AI Push Continues

Last time: NVIDIA announced new physical AI models at CES. Now: Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind have formed a strategic partnership to combine Atlas robots with Gemini Robotics AI. Jensen Huang called it the "ChatGPT moment for physical AI." Learn more →

💵 New: Anthropic Signs $10B Term Sheet

$350 billion valuation—nearly doubling from September. Coatue and Singapore's GIC lead. The Claude-maker is gearing up for a potential IPO. Learn more →

🤠 Texas AI Spotlight

🚗 Update: Tesla Robotaxis Now Fully Driverless in Austin

Last time: Tesla removed human safety monitors from ~37 robotaxis in Austin using FSD v13. Big update: As of January 22, Tesla began offering public robotaxi rides with NO safety monitor in the vehicle—a first for any company in Texas. Fleet is now at 42 vehicles locally. Musk announced at Davos that Tesla robotaxis will be "widespread" in the US by end of 2026. Cybercab prototypes have been spotted downtown. Learn more →

⚖️ Update: TRAIGA Faces Federal Pushback

Last time: Texas's AI law (TRAIGA) took effect January 1, banning AI manipulation, government social scoring, and unauthorized biometric capture. The twist: Trump's December executive order is now being implemented—DOJ may challenge TRAIGA and other state AI laws. Texas could lose $3.3B in broadband funding if deemed non-compliant. Texas legislators (including Republicans) are pushing back, defending TRAIGA's regulatory sandbox approach. Learn more →

🏗️ Update: Texas Data Center Boom Accelerates

Last time: Goldman backed a 5-gigawatt AI power play in South Dallas. New developments: OpenAI/SoftBank's Stargate project is building a 1.2 GW facility in Milam County. A $3B "Meitner" data center is under construction in Pampa. CleanSpark announced a 600 MW AI campus near Houston. Texas is now projected to become the #1 US data center market within 3 years—grid demand could exceed 40 GW by 2028. Learn more →

🎓 Update: UT Austin Dominates Research Funding

Last time: UT Austin hit 5,000+ GPUs—the most AI computing power in academia. Now confirmed: UT leads the entire nation in NSF research funding at $176M+, with $90M dedicated to computer/AI sciences. Learn more →

🔍 New: AG Paxton Opens AI Investigations

Separate from the Pieces Technologies healthcare AI settlement we covered last time—Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened new investigations into Meta and Character.AI for allegedly misleading children with AI-generated mental health services. Learn more →

🗣️ This Month's AI Debate

Federal vs. State AI Regulation: Who should set the rules?

Last time we discussed the vision-only vs. LiDAR debate for autonomous driving. This month, the policy fight is heating up.

Trump's executive order argues state AI laws create a patchwork that hinders innovation. But Texas legislators—including Republicans—are defending TRAIGA as protecting citizens while fostering innovation through its regulatory sandbox.

🏛️ Pro Federal: One set of rules = less compliance chaos for companies building nationally.

🗳️ Pro State: States are "laboratories of democracy"—and some want stronger consumer protections than DC might provide.

💬 What do you think? Bring your hot takes to the next HackAI Meetup!

💬 HackAI Community

Got an AI project, job posting, or demo to share? Reply to this email or message us on Meetup — we'd love to feature you!

Stay curious, Austin 🤖💡

— The HackAI Team, Reid & Bryce