Texas as AI 'Stress Test'

Texas is becoming a proving ground for artificial intelligence, with new data centers moving ahead as lawmakers push new guardrails at the same time. (axios.com) At an Axios event in Dallas published April 13, local executives and Representative Beth Van Duyne said Texas has the investment, companies and political support to lead on artificial intelligence, but still needs more workforce training, stronger security, enough energy and public trust. Axios reported the Dallas area is the second-largest data-center hub in the United States, behind Virginia, and home to 21 Fortune 500 headquarters. (axios.com) The same week, the Fort Worth Zoning Commission backed changes to Black Mountain’s proposed $10 billion data-center campus in southeast Fort Worth. GovTech reported the revised plan calls for four buildings totaling 2.2 million square feet and a larger setback from nearby homes, with related rezoning requests headed to City Council in June. (insider.govtech.com) Artificial intelligence systems run on large clusters of computers, and those computers are typically housed in data centers that use heavy amounts of electricity and water for cooling. Van Duyne said water is “a massive concern,” and Axios reported lawmakers are discussing ideas including requiring data centers to generate their own power. (axios.com) That buildout is colliding with local resistance in Fort Worth. KERA, citing reporting by the Fort Worth Report, said residents at a March town hall pressed Black Mountain executives over water use, pollution, carbon footprint and how close the project would sit to homes in Forest Hill and nearby areas. (keranews.org) Black Mountain has said the campus would bring major investment, and Fort Worth-area coverage has described it as one of the largest economic development projects in Tarrant County. The company’s consultants told residents in March that the initial phase would include more than 1 million square feet of buildings and a power substation. (wfaa.com) At the Capitol, a bipartisan group of 64 Texas House members led by Representative Shelby Slawson wrote to Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz seeking stronger child protections online. The Daily Signal reported the House members joined 20 state senators who had made a similar push in March. (dailysignal.com) The letters focus on online child safety rather than data-center zoning, but they show the same split-screen politics around artificial intelligence in Texas: faster deployment on one track, tougher rules on another. The Senate letter argued states need flexibility to respond as online tools change quickly, according to reporting published March 24. (dailysignal.com) Texas already had the ingredients for this fight before April. In North Texas alone, companies, utilities, schools and local governments are now dealing with the same questions raised in Dallas and Fort Worth: who gets the jobs, who supplies the power, who bears the water burden and who writes the rules. (axios.com) What happens next is not a single state decision but a stack of local and federal ones. Fort Worth’s rezoning requests are still moving through city review, while Texas officials and members of Congress are still arguing over how much protection, and how much speed, artificial intelligence should get. (insider.govtech.com)