Texas

Summary

Texas enacted two AI-specific statutes in 2025. The Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA, HB 149, signed June 22, 2025, effective January 1, 2026) is the primary framework: it prohibits a defined set of harmful AI practices (behavioral manipulation, unlawful discrimination, biometric identification in public spaces, government social scoring, and AI-generated child sexual abuse material) and requires government agencies to disclose AI interactions to consumers. TRAIGA also amends the state's biometric privacy statute (Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers, Chapter 503 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code) to clarify that training AI on publicly available images is not automatic consent, while carving out an exemption for AI development and security uses. Separately, SB 1188 (signed June 20, 2025, effective September 1, 2025) requires healthcare providers to disclose AI use in diagnosis and treatment. Texas has no enacted law specifically targeting AI crawler behavior or training-data opt-out rights; federal baseline law (the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and copyright law) and the Federal Trade Commission Act's prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices apply to AI-driven automated conduct in the absence of state-specific rules. The original 2019 political deepfake election law (Texas Election Code § 255.004) remains on the books but was found partially unconstitutional in 2023; a 2025 legislative effort to reform it failed.