Texas Enacts a Pair of AI Governance Laws, HB 149 and SB 1188

In late June 2025, Texas enacted a pair of laws that create a new framework for AI governance, focusing on the public sector and healthcare. They include the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA), or HB 149, and its companion bill, SB 1188.

Key provisions of TRAIGA (HB 149) include:

• Healthcare Disclosure Mandate: Healthcare providers who use an AI system in relation to health care service or treatment of a patient must disclose such use.
• Manipulation Prohibition: A person may not develop or deploy an AI system in a manner than intentionally aims to incite or encourage a person to commit physical self-harm, harm another person, or engage in criminal activity.
• Government Use Prohibitions: The law bars state agencies from using AI to assign a "social score" to individuals or to perform biometric identification using publicly available data without consent, where such use results in unjustified or disproportionate treatment or would infringe on constitutional or legal rights.
• Discrimination Prohibition: TRAIGA prohibits the development or deployment of an AI system with the specific intent to unlawfully discriminate against a protected class. The law states that “a disparate impact is not sufficient by itself to demonstrate” such intent.
• Sexually Explicit Content Prohibitions: The law prohibits a person from developing or distributing an AI system with the sole intent of producing or distributing child pornography or sexually explicit deepfake videos or images, or an AI system that engages in text-based conversations that simulate or describe sexual content while impersonating or imitating a child younger than 18 years of age.

Key provisions of SB 1188, which focuses on healthcare:

• Human Oversight of Medical Decisions: The law states that a health care practitioner may use AI for diagnostic purposes, including the use of AI for recommendations on a diagnosis or course of treatment, if: the practitioner is acting within the scope of the practitioner’s license or other authorization; the particular use is not otherwise prohibited by state or federal law; and the practitioner reviews all AI-generated records in a manner consistent with medical records standards developed by the Texas Medical Board. A practitioner that uses AI for such purposes must disclose the use of that technology to the patient.
• Electronic Health Record Storage: SB 1188 requires covered entities to ensure that electronic health records are physically maintained in the United States or a territory of the United States, including records stored by third-party or subcontracted computing facility or an entity that provides cloud computing services.

HB 149 is effective on January 1, 2026, and SB 1188 is effective on September 1, 2025.

• Intellectual Property