Texas AI Law
AI-generated text. This page was generated using artificial intelligence.
Browse Texas law and bill articles, dated legislative records, and the historical tracker below. A date in an entry identifies the recorded event or source check; it does not imply that every measure has been rechecked today.
Enacted laws
- Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (HB 149, 2025). Signed June 22, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026. It establishes disclosures for certain government and health-care uses of AI, targeted prohibitions, attorney-general enforcement, an AI regulatory sandbox and the Texas Artificial Intelligence Council.[1]
- SB 441 (2025) — intimate deepfakes. Signed June 20, 2025 and effective September 1, 2025. It expands the offense involving sexually explicit deepfake media, adds an offense for certain threats to produce or distribute it, and provides civil remedies and removal procedures for artificial intimate visual material.[2]
- SB 1964 (2025) — public-sector AI governance. Signed June 20, 2025 and effective September 1, 2025. It directs the Department of Information Resources to establish an AI code of ethics, minimum risk-management and governance standards, education materials and a program for pre-deployment testing by eligible entities.[3]
Regulations and executive actions
- August 3, 2026 — comprehensive data-center audit directive — Governor Abbott directed PUCT and ERCOT to audit every data-center project in the ERCOT interconnection queue before allowing a project to move forward.[4]
Court procedure
Travis County courtroom recording rules (2026)
The amended Local Rules of Civil Procedure and Rules of Decorum for the Travis County Civil and Family District Courts were filed October 23, 2026 and state that they are effective November 1, 2026. Their definitions expressly include AI programs within visual, audio and transcription recording, broadcasting or photographing, and define courtrooms to include both in-person and virtual courtrooms.[5]
Chapter 14 requires prior court authorization for recording, broadcasting or photographing any person, object or proceeding inside the courtroom. Violators may face contempt and/or removal from the Civil and Family Courts Facility. The decorum rules also require photographs and recordings to comply with Chapter 14 and Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 18c.[5] These provisions concern courtroom recording; they do not establish a general ban on AI use in legal practice. The filed version alone does not establish when the AI wording first entered the local rules.
Related coverage: Government use and procurement. News: November 1, 2026.
Historical tracker
May 1, 2026 tracker snapshot
These entries retain the historical NCSL snapshot used by the former state directory. Status labels, including “pending,” “enacted,” “failed,” and “vetoed,” describe that snapshot, not a current-status assessment. This is not a complete inventory of enacted law.
Enactments and resolutions recorded in the snapshot
- No enacted AI-specific statutes currently tracked.
Other measures recorded in the snapshot
- No proposed AI-specific legislation currently tracked.
References
- ↑ Texas Legislature, enrolled summary of HB 149 (89th regular session); final bill history.
- ↑ Texas Legislature, enrolled summary of SB 441 (89th regular session); final bill history.
- ↑ Texas Legislature, enrolled summary of SB 1964 (89th regular session); final bill history.
- ↑ Office of the Texas Governor, Governor Abbott Directs Comprehensive Data Center Audit (August 3, 2026).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Travis County Civil and Family District Courts, Local Rules of Civil Procedure and Rules of Decorum (filed October 23, 2026; effective November 1, 2026), pp. 1, 4, 20, 22 and 26.