Will Abbott and Paxton Enforce the Rules or Bow to Big Tech?
By Adrian Shelley
Last month, President Trump issued Executive Order 14365, claiming to preempt state regulation of artificial intelligence. It comes at a time when AI has dominated the news and our attention. Artificial intelligence and the industries that support it have become—for better or worse—a significant driver of the economy,
As Public Citizen pointed out, Trump’s attempt to preempt state laws regulating artificial intelligence is a handout to his Big Tech cronies. Tech companies have spent at least $1.1 billion in campaign contributions and lobby expenditures for Trump’s benefit.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers have been responding to public concerns about AI’s pervasiveness in our daily lives by taking legislative action. (See Public Citizen’s state legislation tracker here.)
Texas was one of the first states to regulate artificial intelligence. Our first legislation was passed in 2019, banning AI deepfakes in elections. A complete list of AI laws passed in Texas is included at the end of this blog.
Trump cannot actually preempt state law through executive order, although the legality or enforceability of his actions has never stopped him before.
Texas leadership, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been willing to bend the knee to Trump. We don’t know yet whether they will stand up to Trump and enforce Texas’ AI laws, but one of Texas’ most prominent residents has created a perfect test case.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Elon Musk’s Grok AI tool created millions of sexualized images of women. Some reports suggest Grok also generated sexualized images of children. Grok’s owner(s) and/or operator(s) could be civilly or criminally liable under one of Texas newer AI laws (see HB 581 and SB 441 below). Public Citizen recently called for an investigation of Grok for potential violations of state law. Whether state leadership acts on Grok could indicate whether they will allow Trump’s attempted preemption to stand in Texas.
Abbott, Paxton and their allies have been quick to attack teachers, librarians and others for merely providing educational materials they don’t agree with, like on diversity. Here, where the potential target of an investigation is a company owned by the world’s richest man and an ally of the president, Abbot and Paxton have expressed no such outrage.
One thing is clear: there is broad public and bipartisan support for regulating artificial intelligence in Texas. Trump’s executive order tries to do what he could not legally do with the help of Congress. We hope that state lawmakers do not bow to Trump and diligently enforce each of Texas’ AI laws. And we call on Texans to urge their lawmakers to do the same.
Send an email to Texas AG Ken Paxton demanding an investigation into Grok.
Texas Laws Regulating AI
The 89th Legislature (2025):
- HB 149, by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, adds guardrails and disclosures for the use of AI by businesses. These include establishing the Texas Artificial Intelligence Council; prohibiting manipulation of human behavior; requiring disclosure when someone is interacting with AI in a health care setting; requiring consent for the use of biometric data; ban the use of “social scoring”; prohibiting discrimination by AI tools; and other protections.
- HB 581 by Rep. Mary González: Creates civil liability for the owner or operator of an Internet website or application used to create deepfakes of sexual material harmful to minors.
- HB 3512 by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione requires certain government employees to complete an artificial intelligence training program.
- SB 441 by Sen. Chuy Hinojosa: criminalizes the creation of intimate deepfake media without consent; criminalizes threatening to create an intimate deepfake to coerce, extort, harass, or intimidate another person. This bill expanded on SB 1361 (88R) by Se. Joan Huffman (see below).
- SB 815, by Sen. Charles Schwertner, prohibits health insurers from using AI to deny health benefits.
- SB 1188 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst regulates the use and disclosure of artificial intelligence by health care practitioners.
- SB 1964, by Sen. Tan Parker, regulates the use of artificial intelligence by state agencies, particularly for consequential decision-making.
- SB 2373 by Sen. Nathan Johnson criminalizes the use of AI for financial exploitation, financial abuse, or phishing.
The 88th Legislature (2023):
- HB 18 (88R) by Rep. Shelby Slawson protects children online by requiring age verification, limiting data collection and targeted advertising for minors, implementing content-filtering strategies, and providing parental-supervision tools.
- HB 2700 (88R) by Rep. Ryan Guillen added AI images to the statutes criminalizing sexually explicit visual material involving children.
- SB 1361 (88R) by Sen. Joan Huffman criminalized the creation of intimate deepfake videos without consent.
The 86th Legislature (2019):
- SB 751 (86R) by Sen. Bryan Hughes, prevented the creation of deepfake videos to influence an election.
Adrian Shelley is the Texas director of Public Citizen