Is bipartisanship dead in Austin? Not on artificial intelligence rules.

The need for an artificial intelligence law becomes more urgent each day.

Artificial intelligence technology is exploding into all facets of life, and while the technology has great promise in a wide variety of applications including medicine and science, it also poses serious dangers to businesses, privacy and personal data.

The challenges would be less daunting had the federal government gotten ahead of this technology with clear rules, much as the European Union has done to promote research and industrial efficiency while protecting safety and personal rights. In the absence of direction from Congress, Texas is wisely among a handful of states stepping up to set basic rules for the legal and ethical use of artificial intelligence.

In an important show of bipartisanship, the Innovation and Technology Caucus of the Texas Legislature, a group of 60 Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate, are working on comprehensive regulations to govern the use of artificial intelligence in advance of the next legislative session.

The caucus is headed by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, the driving force behind Texas’ soon to be enacted Texas Data Privacy and Security Act to regulate the collection, use, processing and treatment of consumers’ personal data.

Texans cannot take for granted that artificial intelligence will remain safe and used for public good and not for private nefarious ends. Even before artificial intelligence jumped into the public debate less than three years ago, the globally connected internet had become a conduit for dark forces on the web to pilfer personal data, distort political discourse and sow division and mistrust. Artificial intelligence adds another layer of concern, namely the way sophisticated algorithms can embed harmful bias and discrimination, track people without their knowledge or consent or otherwise threaten the personal freedom of Texans.

The caucus must effectively balance the benefits of artificial intelligence while also providing guardrails to protect Texans from abuse. Legislation must have a workable enforcement mechanism to discourage and punish abuses so that state lawmakers don’t repeat the mistake made when federal lawmakers last revised telecommunication law in 1996.

At that time, Congress insulated companies from liability for content on their platforms to encourage competition and innovation. Congress’ failure to update the law since has allowed many social media and internet sites to become dangerously unaccountable.

Broadly, Texas artificial intelligence legislation should build off of the core principles established in Texas’ data privacy law, providing consumers with more say on how data is used and recourse when companies abuse consumer trust. Companies and state government agencies that use artificial intelligence, associated algorithms and biometric information need to be held to clear rules on how the technology informs their decision-making.

Congress has failed to regulate artificial intelligence. Texas mustn’t.