• General law will act as foundation for specific AI rules and provisions
• Technology growth hastens regulation with no guiding principles

The Mexican Congress will draft an artificial intelligence (AI) regulation framework that could be voted on before next autumn, lawmaker Mariana Benítez said.

The Congress’ lower chamber created a nine-member AI special commission on 29 April  whose goal is to draft a general law (ley general) during this legislative year which ends next August, the special commission member told this news service on the sidelines of an AI governance event hosted by local technology think tank Centro-i on 21 September.

Benítez added that the general law would not deal with particular issues like merger control of AI-related companies or how to respond to incidents created by this technology; instead, the regulation would establish Mexican citizens’ rights and data protection principles that the state will enforce.

The general law would also designate or create a Mexican state body to become an AI authority, Benítez said. She added that the general law will serve as the basis to guide further regulations around AI and related issues.

There have been conversations in Congress about the need to amend the Constitution to grant the federal legislature legal power to regulate AI, Benítez said. She added that given AI is currently in a regulatory gray area, local authorities could issue regulations for this technology, paving the way for a patchwork of uncoordinated rules with varying degrees of efficiency.

Keeping up with AI

The Mexican government has started to draft AI regulations without a general governance model, Elena Estavillo, former telecommunications authority commissioner and Centro-i President told this news service on the sidelines of the event. The increasing use of AI in diverse activities has forced the government to forcefully regulate this technology, without a clear understanding of the risks that the regulation aims to protect against, Estavillo said.

Estavillo named as examples President Claudia Sheinbaum’s bill presented in March to regulate AI use in political advertising, and a foreign investment bill submitted to the Senate on 30 August creating a national security merger review procedure for some transactions in areas like AI.

Benítez said that both Congressional chambers host more than 250 bills from past legislatures that aim to regulate AI or related activities. A senator told this news service on May 2025 that an AI bill would be voted on sometime in 2026.

Sheinbaum said during a 24 September press briefing that AI regulation must be the result of a wide discussion process with the participation of academics, experts and citizens.