Colorado's new AI bill wins support from key players
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
The new artificial intelligence legislation in Colorado is drawing strange political bedfellows.
Why it matters: For supporters, that's a symptom of good policy. For critics, it's a warning sign about legislation crafted behind closed doors.
Driving the news: In the bill's first hearing on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and Colorado Chamber of Commerce expressed support for the AI measure, despite often being on opposite sides of major issues.
- The bill is "an important step toward ensuring that people affected by automated decision-making technology can understand how the systems shape outcomes in some of the most important decisions of our lives," Anaya Robinson, the ACLU's public policy director, told lawmakers.
- "We found a balance that addresses the interests of businesses and consumers while trying to protect Colorado's competitiveness and make sure this is still a place where companies want to do business," Chamber president and CEO Loren Furman added moments later.
The other side: Other technology and consumer advocates expressed concern about Senate Bill 189. They wanted to see competing changes to ease enforcement on companies developing the system or add more user protections.
- The disagreements revive a debate that doomed the state's initial AI bill and recent attempts to amend it.
Between the lines: The new regulations are largely the product of a task force convened by Gov. Jared Polis to make the AI rules he signed in 2024 more workable for businesses using the technology.
- The group met for six months, looking at 11 drafts, before unanimously pushing forward the legislation's language, members said.
The big picture: The final draft of the transparency requirements on companies developing and using AI would permit them to correct mistakes before facing sanctions.
- It would simultaneously reduce the risk of discrimination in "consequential decisions" and allow consumers access to the information being used in AI systems.
What they're saying: The bill's main sponsor, state Sen. Robert Rodriguez (D-Denver), expressed reluctance about softening existing AI rules but acknowledged the compromise.
- "I am not happy with the end-all product of this bill, but it's a start," he told colleagues.
What we're watching: The legislation won unanimous support in its first committee but must clear the Senate and the House, all in the week before adjournment.