Texas Enacts One of the Nation's First Comprehensive AI Laws
By Matthew Bertram ·
Last reviewed June 22, 2025
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 149 — the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA) — into law on June 22, 2025. The law takes effect January 1, 2026, putting Texas among the first states with a comprehensive AI statute on the books.
What the law does
TRAIGA runs on two tracks: disclosure and prohibition.
Disclosure mandates. State and local government agencies must tell consumers when they’re interacting with an AI system rather than a human. Healthcare providers face a parallel duty: patients must be told when AI is used in their care.
Prohibited uses. The law bars deploying AI systems specifically designed to incite self-harm or facilitate criminal activity, along with systems built to infringe constitutional rights or to intentionally and unlawfully discriminate. The principles are broad; the enforcement contours will be drawn through Attorney General guidance and the first wave of enforcement actions.
Enforcement
The Texas Attorney General holds exclusive enforcement authority. Civil penalties are tiered: roughly $10,000 to $12,000 for curable violations, $80,000 to $200,000 for uncurable ones, and $2,000 to $40,000 per day for continuing violations — a structure meant to separate good-faith stumbles from deliberate bad actors.
Why Texas GCs and CISOs should act now
The effective date is January 1, 2026 — six months from signing. For organizations that interact with Texas government entities or provide AI-assisted healthcare in the state, that window is tighter than it sounds. Compliance work usually means an AI system inventory, a disclosure-design sprint, and legal sign-off before go-live.
TRAIGA establishes no private right of action, which limits litigation exposure but does nothing to reduce regulatory risk: the Attorney General’s office has broad investigative authority and can move before a violation ever becomes public. Organizations that already keep NIST-style AI documentation and disclosure practices will start with a head start on the rest.
Frequently asked questions
What specific uses of AI does TRAIGA prohibit for every entity — public and private?
TRAIGA's universal prohibitions apply to any developer or deployer regardless of industry: no AI system may be built with the sole intent to manipulate users into self-harm or criminal activity, to infringe constitutional rights, to engage in intentional unlawful discrimination, or to generate child sexual content or non-consensual deepfakes. Government agencies face two additional prohibitions that private entities do not: social-scoring systems and biometric identification without consent.
Does TRAIGA preempt local city or county AI ordinances in Texas?
Yes. Under Tex. Bus. & Comm. Code 552.003, TRAIGA supersedes and preempts any city or county ordinance that regulates AI, setting one statewide compliance standard. A company operating in Dallas, Houston, or Austin faces no additional municipal AI rules on top of the state law.
Can a Texas company be penalized under TRAIGA for an AI system it has not yet deployed?
No. The statute explicitly bars the AG from bringing a civil-penalty action over an AI system that has not yet been deployed. Pre-deployment testing and development sit outside the AG's enforcement reach under Tex. Bus. & Comm. Code 552.105(f).
Analysis and commentary, not legal advice.