With push for AI legislation, here's how Texas legislators hope to build on past momentum

Should the Legislature regulate the use of artificial intelligence in public and private practices? Lawmakers on two new legislative committees are exploring the benefits and challenges of AI and are studying the new technology to consider if the state needs to step in to police its use.

The AI Advisory Council, co-chaired by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, and Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, has been tasked with looking into how AI is already being used in state government and creating a common code of conduct for those agencies, along with additional policy recommendations.

"We're all about limited government, we're all about free markets, we're all about free enterprise," Parker said at a Texas Public Policy Foundation panel in March. "But I will tell you that in the role that we're in, and this time and place, that if there was ever a time to look at the necessity of putting in place regulations to address the downside implications for our society — we will have to take action."

In contrast to traditional computer programs, which follow predetermined instructions, AI technologies can learn from new data and change over time, as humans do.

The possibilities of ChatGPT and other software that use artificial intelligence have made the once-niche tech concept into a fascination — and a cause for concern — for many Americans.

“Deepfake” videos, photos and audio files have drawn attention to bad actors' ability to convincingly impersonate public figures online, such as in the case of phone calls made in the voice of Joe Biden to confuse voters in New Hampshire or pornographic videos seemingly depicting celebrities such as Taylor Swift.

ChatGPT — a generative AI bot that can write essays, create hyper-realistic photos, compose songs or answer questions — has prompted concerns about academic integrity as it has a tendency to “hallucinate,” or fabricate, academic citations and output inaccurate information.

In an AI Advisory Council hearing in March, Texas Department of Transportation officials discussed using AI to cut invoice processing times from several weeks to several seconds and said new software helps it dispatch tow trucks almost immediately after accidents occur.

To tackle regulations for AI used and created by private entities, House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, also appointed five members to the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies in April. That committee held its first meeting April 29.

Legislature’s work on AI builds on years of previous legislation

In contrast with the European Union, the U.S. does not have federal consumer protections for data use, meaning it's up to individual states to regulate how tech companies handle users’ personal information.

"The federal government never did a federal omnibus privacy law," Capriglione told the American-Statesman. "I don't think they're going to do one for artificial intelligence, either. So this leaves it up to the states to do that."

While congressional pushes for an omnibus bill have languished amid partisan battles, Texas has sped ahead, becoming the 10^th state to pass comprehensive data privacy legislation last year.

When it goes into effect in July, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act will give Texans the right to prevent companies from collecting or selling their data. It will also allow residents to request copies of their personal data; give them the ability to correct data; and forbid businesses from discriminating against those who exercise these rights.

That bill, in turn, followed a number of other laws relating to cybersecurity, data privacy and government technology use that one tech-savvy lawmaker — Capriglione — has ushered through the Legislature over the past decade.

Capriglione developed his tech bona fides while working for “computer engineering companies specializing in semiconductor design and Internet products,” according to his House biography. Since his election to the state House in 2012, he has authored many of the Legislature’s other major data security laws, including:

• The Texas Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Acts, two bills creating penalties for attacks on computer systems and mandating that government agencies take measures to protect citizens’ data, in 2017.
• The Texas Privacy Protection Act, updating data breach notification requirements and creating an advisory council to study potential privacy legislation, in 2019.
• The creation of a Technology Improvement and Modernization Fund and $900 million in funds to update state government systems in 2021.

With the push for AI legislation, Capriglione is hoping to build on momentum from data privacy and security policy successes he spearheaded in the 86^th, 87^th and 88^th Legislatures. He views AI as the culmination of each of the issues addressed in previous sessions.

"Artificial intelligence is to me the grand sum of all of that," he told the Statesman in a phone interview. "It is taking all of this data ... from sources all over the internet or inside state agencies and then using that data to train these computer models to go and make decisions in a way that you would typically expect humans to make those decisions."

The AI Advisory Council will meet Wednesday to hear testimony from the Texas Education Agency, the State Auditor's Office and the Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Because Congress is unlikely to pass legislation on AI, states such as Texas have the opportunity and responsibility to pioneer new laws, Parker told the Statesman.

"Texas leads, as we will lead here in AI, for the rest of the country," Parker said. "Because we're not going to get anything out of a broken D.C., where you're going to see leadership is in the states."

The Legislature's goal is to "manage the downside" while "making the most of the upside opportunities" of generative AI, he said.

"Every aspect of our lives will be impacted (by generative AI), from the roads that we drive on to the food that we eat to the investments that we make and everything in between," Parker said. "I want people to know that Texas takes this issue and the responsibility very seriously."