Local businessman speaks at national AI conference
Published on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Victoria resident and business owner Teri Moten will take to the national stage in early February. at the upcoming AI ICON conference in Killeen. For three days, artificial intelligence experts will gather to learn how to use AI to grow your business.
AI ICON is an artificial intelligence and innovation conference hosted by the Innovation Black Chamber of Commerce (IBCC) that is open to everyone and includes several participants from across the United States.
Since 2022, IBCC Founder and President Ronnie Russell has been a pioneer in the use of AI, adapting and using AI from its earliest stages to today's OpenAI.
Ronnie Russell, a U.S. Army veteran, is the founder and president of the Innovating Black Chamber of Commerce and founder of the AI ICON Conference.
“If you look at history, artificial intelligence has always existed, but the name itself was never coined, and it was always called 'automation,'” Russell said. “When I used to use Word a long time ago, when I typed something (incorrectly), a red squiggly line would pop up, and it was AI, but it told me it was something called autocorrect. When Open AI started in 2022, I started learning more about it. That's when I started trying different things and learning about what the platform was and how to use it effectively. I started with that, and it started to grow.”
Russell has many ideas about how AI can and will be used in the future, both in education and economic development. The U.S. Army veteran has experienced how Central Texas has benefited from the use of AI and wants to use what he learns to grow AI in Texas and the United States.
He also wants to expand AI into education as he believes it is the future.
Loading…“Texas is reinventing something that already exists,” Russell said. “California has Silicon Valley, and now we have Silicon Hill in Austin. I think we should have districts that are focused on innovation, like we have here in Victoria. And in these innovation districts, we should have innovation hubs. These innovation hubs will create the next Elon Musk, the next open AI creators. “Because someone went out and learned something and brought it back. And while Texas will be stronger because of technology, and we will have more innovation hubs in our innovation districts, our communities will be stronger, and that will help make our cities faster and more efficient, but we must always remember that there is also an ethic that can be instilled.”
In Victoria, Teri Moten is pioneering the use of AI. Mr Moten describes himself as a “business problem solver”, according to his website, and uses AI to evaluate businesses in Victoria and everywhere.
Teri Moten
Moten calls herself a “strategic partner in AI literacy and growth” on her LinkedIn profile and is a featured teacher at next month’s AI ICON conference. Her profile adds that she offers resources on how to “deliver AI training to you, your organization, your team, and your region, learn how to use AI to support people rather than replace them, and make AI your strategic thinking partner.”
Like Morten, Russell strongly believes that AI is the future. Through education and conferences like AI ICON, their goal is to use AI ethically and effectively.
“If you instill integrity in someone, they're going to act smarter because they're going to be more conscious about the decisions they're going to make,” Russell says. “That's where the ethics of artificial intelligence come into play. Do you have the integrity to do the right thing, even when you're sitting in front of your laptop, even when there's no one behind you?”
lindsay plotkin I am a multimedia reporter for Victoria Advocate. Please contact lindsey.plotkin@vicad.com.
