TLDR: Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA) into law on June 22, 2025, making Texas a leading state in AI regulation. Effective January 1, 2026, TRAIGA establishes a framework primarily focusing on government AI use and prohibiting specific harmful applications across sectors, while also creating an AI Council and a regulatory sandbox to foster responsible innovation.
AUSTIN, Texas – On June 22, 2025, Governor Greg Abbott officially signed the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA), also known as HB 149, into law. This landmark legislation positions Texas as either the second or third U.S. state, following Colorado and potentially Utah, to enact comprehensive artificial intelligence regulation. The Act is slated to take effect on January 1, 2026, providing businesses and governmental entities ample time to ensure compliance.
TRAIGA represents a significant, albeit refined, step in AI governance. While an earlier version of the bill (HB 1709) proposed a broader regulatory scheme with extensive private sector obligations, the final enacted version has been scaled back to focus primarily on the use of AI systems by government agencies and to prohibit certain egregious applications across all sectors. The law defines an ‘artificial intelligence system’ broadly as ‘any machine-based system that, for any explicit or implicit objective, infers from the inputs the system receives how to generate outputs, including content, decisions, predictions, or recommendations, that can influence physical or virtual environments.’
Key provisions of TRAIGA include stringent prohibitions on the development and deployment of AI systems for specific harmful purposes. This includes a ban on using AI with the intent to unlawfully discriminate against a protected class, emphasizing that disparate impact alone will not suffice to prove discrimination. Furthermore, the Act explicitly prohibits AI systems designed to manipulate human behavior to incite self-harm, violence, or criminal activity. Government entities are also barred from utilizing AI for ‘social scoring’—categorizing individuals to assign a social score that could lead to disproportionate or unconstitutional detrimental treatment. The law also addresses the creation and distribution of child pornography and unlawful deepfakes, and the infringement of constitutional rights through AI.
Notably, TRAIGA largely eliminates disclosure obligations for private employers regarding their AI use. Instead, the requirement to disclose interaction with AI systems is primarily placed on state agencies when engaging with consumers, and on healthcare service providers when using AI in patient treatment. This shift reflects a more targeted approach compared to the initial legislative proposals.
To support the responsible development and deployment of AI, TRAIGA establishes the Texas Artificial Intelligence Council, an advisory body tasked with providing expertise on the ethical, privacy, and public safety implications of AI. Additionally, the Act creates a first-in-the-nation regulatory sandbox program. This innovative program will allow participants to test and develop AI systems in a controlled environment with certain legal protections, fostering innovation while ensuring oversight.
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Enforcement authority for TRAIGA is exclusively vested with the Texas Attorney General. The Act also includes a broad preemption clause, preventing local ordinances from governing AI, thereby ensuring a unified statewide regulatory approach. While TRAIGA draws inspiration from other leading AI regulations like the Colorado AI Act and the EU AI Act, it maintains a distinct and more focused regulatory framework tailored to Texas’s specific policy objectives.
