Texas Could Blow Its Shot at Leading the AI Revolution
Texas is built for growth: It’s got land, talent, and a deep-seated cultural bias toward building over banning. For this reason, companies like Tesla, Meta, and Nvidia are pouring billions into the state. The state was perfectly positioned to lead America’s artificial intelligence (AI) revolution—until lawmakers nearly sent these companies fleeing to other states.
The original text of Texas House Bill 149—the Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA)—was a blueprint for how to kill innovation. Modeled after Europe’s AI Act and former President Joe Biden’s now-defunct AI Bill of Rights, it proposed audits, sweeping risk classifications, and vague compliance mandates that would’ve buried startups while big incumbents would not have been significantly hindered. It was regulation based on fear, not facts.
But to their credit, Texas lawmakers course-corrected. On March 14, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R–Keller) introduced a revised version of TRAIGA that ditched the open-ended audits, the broad “high-risk AI” definitions, and the compliance hurdles that would’ve applied equally to spam filters and autonomous vehicles. The new version reflected a growing realization: You can protect consumers without kneecapping innovators.
The bill has passed the House and is heading to the Senate—though so far has been left pending in committee.
Even the substitute bill isn’t perfect. H.B. 149 would create a new state AI council, impose heavy reporting mandates, and open the door to mission creep without a clear limiting principle. It comes with a price tag north of $25 million and carves out roles for 20 new full-time state employees. Not exactly the small-government energy Texas wants to be known for.
The Texas Senate has the chance to finish what the House started by tightening the bill’s scope and guarding against bureaucratic bloat. Texas can lead in AI by scaling back bureaucracy, not building a r
Article from Reason.com
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