# Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (HB 149, 89th Legislature) - **Record type**: Policy instrument - **Jurisdiction**: Texas (United States) - **Instrument type**: Act / statute - **Status**: In force - **Binding**: Yes - **Issuing body**: Texas Legislature - **Adopted**: 2025-06-22 - **In force**: 2026-01-01 - **Applies from**: 2026-01-01 ## In brief The Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA) is a binding act of Texas (United States), issued by Texas Legislature. It has been in force since 1 January 2026. Persons doing business in Texas, producing products used by Texans, or developing or deploying AI systems in Texas, plus state agencies; no private right of action. ## Summary Signed on 22 June 2025 and effective 1 January 2026, TRAIGA bans developing or deploying AI systems intended to manipulate people into self-harm or crime, government social scoring, biometric identification by government from public data without consent, intentional unlawful discrimination against protected classes, and production of child sexual abuse material or unlawful sexual deepfakes. State agencies and health-care providers must disclose AI interactions. It creates a 36-month regulatory sandbox administered by the Department of Information Resources, a Texas Artificial Intelligence Council, and gives the Attorney General exclusive enforcement with civil penalties after a 60-day cure period; disparate impact alone does not prove intent to discriminate. ## Scope Persons doing business in Texas, producing products used by Texans, or developing or deploying AI systems in Texas, plus state agencies; no private right of action. ## Who it applies to Developers and deployers of AI systems in Texas; state agencies; health-care providers using AI with patients. ## What organisations must do Screen AI uses against the prohibited-intent categories, add disclosure where the entity is a state agency or health-care provider, document intent and testing to use the statutory defences (NIST AI RMF alignment, red-teaming, cure), and consider the sandbox for novel uses. ## Key dates 2025-06-22: signed by the Governor; 2026-01-01: effective date. ## Penalties Civil penalties of USD 10,000 to 12,000 per curable violation, 80,000 to 200,000 per uncurable violation and 2,000 to 40,000 per day for continuing violations, enforced by the Attorney General after notice and a 60-day cure period. ## Notes on dates Dates are taken from the linked official source; a reviewer should confirm in-force and application dates before relying on them. ## Obligations recorded against this instrument (7) - **Government agencies must disclose to consumers that they are interacting with an AI system** (Business and Commerce Code Section 551.051) — A governmental agency that makes an AI system available to interact with consumers must disclose to each consumer, before or at the time of the interaction, that they are interacting with an AI system. The disclosure is owed even where the AI nature of the interaction would be obvious, must be clear and conspicuous, written in plain language and may not use a dark pattern; a hyperlink to the disclosure is acceptable for online services. - Binding: yes - Applies from: 2026-01-01 - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga-government-agency-ai-interaction-disclosure - **Health-care providers must disclose the use of AI in patient services** (Business and Commerce Code Section 551.051) — A person who provides health-care services or treatment and uses an AI system in relation to those services must disclose that use to the patient, or to the patient's personal representative or guardian, no later than the date the service or treatment is first provided, with an exception for emergencies where the disclosure is made as soon as reasonably possible. The disclosure must be clear, conspicuous and in plain language. - Binding: yes - Applies from: 2026-01-01 - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga-health-care-ai-disclosure - **Developers and deployers must not use AI to incite self-harm, harm to others or crime** (Business and Commerce Code Section 551.052) — A person may not develop or deploy an AI system in a manner that intentionally aims to incite or encourage a person to commit physical self-harm, including suicide, to harm another person, or to engage in criminal activity. The prohibition turns on the developer's or deployer's intent rather than on the system's effects, which is the pattern followed throughout the Act's prohibited-use provisions. - Binding: yes - Applies from: 2026-01-01 - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga-manipulation-prohibition - **Governmental entities must not use AI for social scoring** (Business and Commerce Code Section 551.053) — A governmental entity may not develop or deploy an AI system that evaluates or classifies natural persons or groups on the basis of their social behaviour or personal characteristics, with the intent to calculate or assign a social score or similar valuation that leads to detrimental or unfavourable treatment unrelated to the context in which the data was collected, or that is unjustified or disproportionate to the behaviour. - Binding: yes - Applies from: 2026-01-01 - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga-government-social-scoring-prohibition - **Governmental entities must not use AI for biometric identification from public data without consent where it infringes rights** (Business and Commerce Code Section 551.054) — A governmental entity may not develop or deploy an AI system for the purpose of uniquely identifying a specific individual using biometric data, or of gathering images or other media from the internet or another public source without the individual's consent, where doing so would infringe a right guaranteed under the United States or Texas constitutions or violate state or federal law. The Act preserves lawful uses that comply with existing biometric-privacy law. - Binding: yes - Applies from: 2026-01-01 - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga-government-biometric-identification-prohibition - **Developers and deployers must not use AI with the intent to unlawfully discriminate against a protected class** (Business and Commerce Code Section 551.056) — A person may not develop or deploy an AI system with the intent to unlawfully discriminate against a protected class in violation of state or federal law. A disparate impact on a protected class is not, by itself, sufficient to show an intent to discriminate, and insurers and financial institutions acting under their own regulatory regimes are treated separately. - Binding: yes - Applies from: 2026-01-01 - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga-unlawful-discrimination-prohibition - **Developers and distributors must not build AI intended to produce child sexual abuse material or unlawful sexual deepfakes** (Business and Commerce Code Section 551.057) — A person may not develop or distribute an AI system with the sole intent of producing, assisting or aiding in producing, or distributing child pornography or unlawful deep-fake videos or images, including sexually explicit deepfakes of a person without consent, or of engaging in sexually explicit text-based conversations while impersonating or imitating a child, in violation of the Texas Penal Code. - Binding: yes - Applies from: 2026-01-01 - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga-sexual-content-and-csam-prohibition ## Dated deadlines - 2026-01-01 — Effective date (precision: exact, status: scheduled) ## Provenance - **Permanent id**: AIPT-POL-0227 (https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0227; never changes or gets reused) - **Record page**: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/us-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act-traiga - **Official source**: https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB149 - **Source document**: HB 149 (89R) history and enrolled text - **Published by**: Texas Legislature Online - **Review status**: verified - **Confidence**: high - **Facts last confirmed**: 2026-09-26 - **Confirmed by**: Bhaskar Bhatt (see https://aipolicytracker.org/reviewers) - **Retrieved**: 2026-10-27 - **Licence**: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ - **Cite as**: AIPolicyTracker (2026). "Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (HB 149, 89th Legislature)" [AIPT-POL-0227, record version 1, verified 26 September 2026 by Bhaskar Bhatt]. https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0227 (accessed 27 October 2026). > This record is a structured summary with a link to the official text. It is not legal advice. Open the official source before relying on any date or duty. How current each record type must be is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/verification; what a record must carry at all is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/coverage.