Sandbox Participant Obligations and Exit Requirements

Sandbox participant obligations and exit requirements represent the governance construct that defines the terms of a conditional regulatory bargain: in exchange for temporary protection from full Chapter 551 (AI Protection) enforcement — including the $200K/violation civil penalty regime — sandbox participants accept a structured accountability posture that includes ongoing operational constraints, mandatory reporting, consumer harm monitoring, and a defined transition obligation upon exit. This is not merely a set of procedural rules; it is a two-sided compliance architecture in which the Texas AI Council's forbearance from full enforcement is contingent on the participant's continuous demonstration of responsible innovation conduct. The scope is bounded: obligations apply only during the approved sandbox window and to the specific AI system and use case approved — the participant cannot generalize sandbox protection to other products or deployments. Exit requirements govern what happens at the boundary of sandbox status: participants who exit — whether by choice, expiration of their approved term, or Council-initiated removal — face an immediate transition obligation to either achieve full TRAIGA Chapter 551 compliance or cease the covered AI activity. Unlike the EU AI Act's sandbox framework (Articles 53-55), which focuses primarily on pre-market conformity, TRAIGA's sandbox is a live-deployment testing environment, making the exit governance especially consequential because real consumers may have been exposed to the system during the sandbox period.