Exclusive: Texas AG candidate unveils "AI audit" plan

Exclusive: Texas AG candidate unveils "AI audit" plan. Add Axios as your preferred source to.

Key points

• The Texas Responsible AI Governance Act took effect in the beginning of 2026 and prohibits AI designed with specific harms, such as discrimination or child exploitation.
• The other side: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has brought lawsuits against tech firms, including Meta and Character.AI.
• The major picture: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been gutted during President Trump's second term.
• Stuff that we thought the statutes were fine to handle three years ago might as well have been 3, 000 years ago.
• "What might distinguish me more from Ken Paxton is I'm not going to be selective in my enforcement, " Johnson remarked.

Driving the news: Johnson wants to look at consumer protection, fair competition and employment laws and come up with a specific list of recommendations for the legislature – all within the first 30 days in office, according to an announcement shared first with Axios.

"Stuff that we thought the statutes were fine to handle three years ago might as well have been 3, 000 years ago. The pace is changing so rapidly, " Johnson informed Axios.

Texas has passed AI-specific laws, but Johnson notes they still fall short – for example, by not requiring employers to disclose when they apply AI to determine who gets fired.

In practice, the major picture: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been gutted during President Trump's second term. It has has lost much of its workforce and the agency has dropped dozens of investigations and transparency practices, prompting Democratic and Republican attorneys general to take on more consumer protection work.

While Washington has focused on a deregulatory approach coupled with preempting state action, states have additionally been moving forward on AI regulation.

In practice, the Texas Responsible AI Governance Act took effect in the beginning of 2026 and prohibits AI designed with specific harms, such as discrimination or child exploitation.

Meanwhile, the attorney general would be responsible for enforcing that comprehensive bill and a number of other AI-specific ones.

Meanwhile, the other side: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has brought lawsuits against tech firms, including Meta and Character.AI.

"Paxton has gone after a lot of tech giants, but he leaves alone anyone affiliated with Elon Musk. I'm not going to apply the law to everybody except to my political friends and allies." Paxton's office did not respond to a request for comment.

For now, exclusive: Texas AG candidate unveils " AI audit" plan remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.