DENVER — It’s a busy week at the Colorado State Capitol ahead of the special session that starts on Thursday.
Not only is it giving lawmakers a chance to close the budget shortfall, it’s also a last-ditch effort to make changes to the Colorado AI Act (CAIA).
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the Colorado AI Act in 2024, which targets companies using AI for consequential decisions in sectors like employment and housing.
When it happened, there was an expectation the policy would be revised, even leading to the creation of an AI task force for that reason.
“Gov. Polis, Attorney General Weiser, industry groups have all sort of come out and said that [when] the bill that was passed, although it aligned a lot with international standards and some best practices around AI, that there needed to be some tweaks. So, there have been a lot of discussions about what those tweaks need to be,” said Dorsey & Whitney privacy and cybersecurity law expert Austin Chambers.
Chambers broke it down further for Denver7.
“[The tweaks] range from anything from attempting to basically amend the act very slightly, or just remove it entirely, or just push out the effective date,” he explained.
Now we're here on the eve of yet another special session, with four competing amendments now on the table as lawmakers figure out the best way forward.
Politics
Polis calls special session, hiring freeze to address $1.2B loss of revenue
One of those, the AI Sunshine Act, is being introduced by the same lawmakers who wrote the original law.
This amendment gets more specific, by creating a streamlined framework for regulating emerging technology and rolling back burdens on Colorado businesses and public agencies.
It would also counteract efforts to pass the Big Tech Immunity Act, which those lawmakers say would leave Coloradans open to potential bias or discrimination by algorithmic systems.
Consumer advocates and labor groups support it.
“I think the problem that I see is that, yeah, like any system, they need to be regulated. If it's going to be a system that can do harm to you or do good, it should be regulated,” said Boulder Area Labor Council President Alejandra Beatty.
Science and Tech
Colorado's AI regulations will be under the microscope during special session
Others want to hit pause on the law, allowing more time to find a solution, especially because Colorado’s law would be the first of its kind in the nation.
“What we do now will set a precedent, you know, for the whole country. If we just make this so onerous on small businesses, I think it could cripple the startup community, especially in Colorado,” said iterate.ai CEO Jon Nordmark, whose company is based in the Centennial State.
With so many diverging interests, experts say it's unclear how this will play out.
“It’ll be interesting to see how this proceeds, kind of in the context of what is a very complicated area, many competing interests, and a very short legislative session,” said Chambers. “I think this is really seen as the last chance to make changes to the law.”
