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AI Laws in Austin, Texas
As of 2026-06-20, AI Laws USA tracks 32 AI rules that apply to people and businesses in Austin, Texas: 10+ federal protections, 22 Texas state-level rules (no Austin-specific ordinances are indexed yet). Coverage is strongest on consumer protection, automated decision-making, deepfakes, and AI-generated images. 22 of these rules are already in effect. Each entry below links to its official source.
Austin local AI rules (and Travis County)
No city- or county-specific AI ordinances are currently indexed for Austin, Texas.
- Honest gap: We don't currently index any Austin-specific AI ordinances. Federal and Texas state rules still apply throughout the city. Have we missed something? Email [email protected].
Texas-level AI rules most relevant to Austin
22 Texas state rules apply to residents and businesses in Austin. Showing the 8 most relevant to Austin's local picture; 14 more are on the Texas jurisdiction page.
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In effect Moderate protection
TX TRAIGA (HB 149)
TX · Effective 2026-01-01 · Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ch. 552; HB 149 (89th Leg., R.S., 2025)
Texas passed a comprehensive AI law that, among other things, prohibits AI systems intentionally developed to engage in unlawful discrimination or behavioral manipulation, criminalizes AI-generated child sexual abuse material, and gives the Texas Attorney General sweeping enforcement authority over deceptive AI practices. Compliance began January 1, 2026.
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In effect Limited protection
TDPSA
Texas · Effective 2024-07-01 · Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 541 (HB 4, 2023)
Texans can access, correct, delete, and obtain copies of personal data held by covered businesses, and can opt out of targeted advertising, data sales, and profiling used for decisions with significant effects (like jobs, housing, or credit). Businesses must get consent for sensitive data, including biometrics.
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In effect Limited protection
Texas SB 441 (deepfake NCII crime + website/AI-app/payment-processor liability)
Texas · Effective 2025-09-01 · Tex. S.B. 441, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025); amending Tex. Penal Code 21.165 and Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 98B (adding 98B.0021, 98B.0022, 98B.008, 98B.009); eff. Sept. 1, 2025
This Texas law makes it a crime to knowingly create or share, without consent, AI-generated or otherwise manipulated deepfake images that falsely depict a real person with computer-generated intimate parts or engaged in sexual conduct they never performed, and bans threatening to do so. It also lets victims sue the people who made or spread such artificial intimate visual material, and extends that liability to owners of websites, social platforms, AI 'nudification' apps, or payment systems that knowingly or recklessly facilitate the content. Covered websites and apps must offer an easy removal-request tool and can be liable if they fail to take material down within 72 hours of a depicted person's request. Victims may sue using a confidential identity and have up to 10 years to file.
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In effect Moderate protection
Texas v. Pieces Technologies
TX · Effective 2024-09-18 · Texas v. Pieces Technologies — Healthcare Generative AI Settlement (2024-09-18)
First state AG settlement targeting deceptive GenAI clinical marketing. Alleged Pieces misrepresented hallucination rates of a hospital summarization tool at four TX hospitals; settlement mandates accurate disclosures and monitoring. This action is an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance (AVC), not a monetary settlement; no penalty was assessed and Pieces Technologies denies wrongdoing.
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In effect Moderate protection
TX SB 2205 (2017 AV statute)
Texas · Effective 2017-09-01 · Tex. Transp. Code §§ 545.451–545.456
Texas's main autonomous-vehicle law explicitly authorizes AVs to operate on Texas roads without a human driver, defines the 'owner' of an automated driving system as the legal operator for liability and traffic enforcement, and preempts local AV bans. It set the framework that later allowed Waymo, Cruise, and Aurora freight to operate in Texas.
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In effect Limited protection
TRAIGA
Texas · Effective 2026-01-01 · Tex. HB 149 (2025), TRAIGA
Texas's AI law bans specific harmful uses of AI — intentional discrimination, behavioral manipulation encouraging self-harm or crime, social scoring by government, and certain biometric identification without consent — and requires government agencies to disclose AI interactions to consumers. It includes a regulatory sandbox and preempts local AI ordinances.
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In effect Limited protection
TX SB 2373 (AI Media / Phishing Financial Abuse)
Texas · Effective 2025-09-01 · Tex. S.B. 2373, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025); Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 100B; Tex. Penal Code Sec. 32.56
Texas makes it unlawful to use AI-generated images, audio, video, or text — or phishing messages — to financially exploit or defraud another person. Victims can sue the wrongdoer and recover their actual losses, damages for mental anguish, the profits the wrongdoer earned, and their court costs and attorney's fees, and may seek an injunction. A separate civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each day the deceptive media or communication was circulated can be pursued. The same conduct can also be prosecuted criminally, with penalties scaling up to a first-degree felony based on the amount taken.
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In effect Limited protection
TX HB 581 — AI Sexual Material Age Verification
Texas · Effective 2025-09-01 · Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code (artificial sexual material harmful to minors) (HB 581, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025))
This law regulates commercial websites and apps that offer publicly available tools for generating 'artificial sexual material harmful to minors.' Operators must use reasonable age-verification methods to confirm users are at least 18, and must ensure that any real person used as the source of the generated material is also at least 18 and has consented to the use of their face and body. Operators that ignore these duties face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day, rising to as much as $250,000 if a violation results in a minor accessing the material. The law includes safe-harbor protections for operators that adopt qualifying terms of use and take affirmative steps to limit such material.
Federal AI rules that apply in Austin, Texas
These federal protections apply everywhere in the United States, including Austin, Texas. Showing the 10 strongest and most recent.
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In effect Stronger protection
Bartz v. Anthropic
N.D. Cal. · Effective 2025-09-05 · Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:24-cv-05417 (N.D. Cal.)
Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic over its use of pirated-book datasets to train Claude. In June 2025 Judge William Alsup issued a split ruling: training on lawfully purchased books was fair use, but ingesting pirated copies from LibGen was not. In September 2025 Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion class settlement — the largest AI copyright recovery to date.
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In effect Stronger protection
Banner v. Tesla (Autopilot)
S.D. Fla. · Effective 2025-08-01 · Banner v. Tesla, Inc., No. 1:21-cv-21940 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 1, 2025)
A Florida federal jury found Tesla 33% liable in August 2025 for the 2019 death of Naibel Benavides Leon, in a crash involving Autopilot. The verdict awarded $243M (later reduced to ~$220M) — the first Autopilot wrongful-death verdict against Tesla.
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In effect Stronger protection
COPPA + 2025 Rule (childrens data)
United States · Effective 2025-06-23 · 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506; 16 C.F.R. Part 312
COPPA requires online services aimed at children under 13 to get verifiable parental consent before collecting kids' personal data. The 2025 rule update — fully in effect since April 22, 2026 — adds biometric identifiers (like face templates and voiceprints, which matter for AI tools), requires separate parental consent before sharing children's data for targeted advertising, and tightens data retention limits.
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In effect Stronger protection
TAKE IT DOWN Act
United States · Effective 2025-05-19 · Pub. L. No. 119-12 (S. 146)
Makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish intimate images of someone without consent, including AI-generated deepfakes. Social media and similar platforms must give victims a way to request removal and must take the content (and known copies) down within 48 hours. The platform removal requirement became enforceable May 19, 2026, and the FTC has already begun enforcement.
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Blocked / in litigation Stronger protection
NetChoice v. Yost (Ohio)
S.D. Ohio · Effective 2025-04-16 · NetChoice, LLC v. Yost, No. 2:24-cv-00047 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 16, 2025)
Ohio's Social Media Parental Notification Act — requiring parental consent for minors' social-media use, including algorithmic feeds — was preliminarily enjoined on February 12, 2024, then permanently enjoined on April 16, 2025 when the district court granted summary judgment for NetChoice. The state appealed to the Sixth Circuit, which vacated the district court's injunction in 2026.
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In effect Stronger protection
Thaler v. Perlmutter (Copyright)
D.C. Cir. · Effective 2025-03-18 · Thaler v. Perlmutter, 130 F.4th 1039 (D.C. Cir. 2025)
The companion copyright case: Stephen Thaler sought to register a copyright with 'Creativity Machine' (his AI) as the author. The D.C. Circuit affirmed in March 2025 that the Copyright Act's human-authorship requirement is constitutional and dispositive. AI cannot be a copyright author under U.S. law.
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In effect Stronger protection
Thomson Reuters v. Ross
D. Del. · Effective 2025-02-11 · Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH v. Ross Intelligence, Inc., 694 F. Supp. 3d 467 (D. Del. 2025)
Thomson Reuters sued legal-research startup Ross Intelligence in 2020 for copying Westlaw headnotes to train a competing AI legal-research tool. In February 2025, Judge Stephanos Bibas (sitting by designation) granted summary judgment to Thomson Reuters on direct copyright infringement and rejected Ross's fair-use defense — the first definitive U.S. ruling on AI-training fair use. The 2023 jury trial verdict had been deadlocked; the 2025 ruling resolved liability.
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In effect Stronger protection
Louis v. SafeRent
D. Mass. · Effective 2024-11-20 · Louis v. SafeRent Solutions, LLC, No. 1:22-cv-10800 (D. Mass.)
SafeRent agreed in November 2024 to a $2.275M settlement and a five-year ban on using its 'SafeRent Score' for housing-voucher applicants, after a class action alleged its AI tenant-screening tool systematically denied housing to Black and Hispanic Section 8 voucher holders. The first major AI tenant-screening Fair Housing Act settlement.
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In effect Stronger protection
FTC Impersonation Rule (AI)
United States · Effective 2024-04-01 · 16 C.F.R. Part 461; 89 Fed. Reg. 15017
The FTC's Impersonation Rule lets the agency directly sue scammers who pretend to be a government agency or a real business — including those who use AI-cloned voices or generated images to do so. Civil penalties can reach $53,088 per violation. The FTC also issued a supplemental notice in February 2024 proposing to extend the rule to all individual impersonation.
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In effect Stronger protection
TCPA (AI voice calls)
United States · Effective 2024-02-08 · 47 U.S.C. § 227; FCC 24-17
Robocalls using AI-cloned or AI-generated voices are treated like other 'artificial voice' calls: callers need your prior express consent, must identify themselves, and must offer opt-outs for telemarketing. You can personally sue violators for $500 to $1,500 per illegal call.
Frequently asked questions about AI laws in Austin, Texas
Are there AI laws in Austin, Texas?
What federal AI rules apply in Austin?
Does Texas have an AI privacy law?
Are deepfakes illegal in Texas?
Can my employer use AI to screen me for jobs in Austin?
How do I report an AI law violation in Austin?
Are facial recognition cameras allowed in Austin?
Is Austin regulated by Texas's consumer privacy act?
Have we missed an AI rule in Austin?
This page is generated from our open civic dataset. If you know of a Austin ordinance, county rule, or local enforcement action we should add, email [email protected] or submit a correction. Every entry must include a verifiable source.