Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation Thursday that rewrites and softens a Colorado law that sought to curb discrimination through the use of artificial intelligence, ending a two-year tug-of-war over how tightly the state should regulate the technology.
Starting Jan. 1, the law passed as will require companies or agencies to notify job seekers, prospective college students and people seeking bank loans if AI will be involved in weighing their applications. It’s not yet clear what form those notifications will take.
SB-189 also gives people whose applications are rejected the ability to request more information about what data was used to make the decision and to request “meaningful human review and reconsideration.”
“We were able to reach consensus, at long last, and get to a place where we can offer consumers meaningful protections and avenues for redress without hampering innovation for developers of AI,” Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, who sponsored SB-189, said before the bill signing.
The new law marks a significant rewrite, and weakening, of the initial AI regulations signed into law two years ago. Among other things, the previous rules — which, after multiple unsuccessful modification attempts, were finally set to take effect next month — required companies to undertake preemptive risk assessments to limit artificial intelligence’s potential to facilitate discrimination.
Still, the bill’s passage into law means Colorado is one of the few states in the nation to enact regulations addressing the potentially discriminatory use of AI in consequential application decisions. It also ends a 24-month saga of delays and failed negotiations.
To end that deadlock, SB-189’s terms were hammered out by a Polis-convened task force of tech companies, business groups, and progressive and labor organizations, among others — work that began late last year and continued well into the legislative session.
Once that task force reached a fragile peace, its members pleaded with the legislature not to change any key points of their agreement. The legislature largely acquiesced, and SB-189 sailed through the legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support.
“This year, we finally got there,” Rodriguez said. “We got a bill across the finish line that nobody’s happy with, but everyone can live with.”
The rewrite also appears to render moot an April lawsuit brought by billionaire Elon Musk’s company xAI, which challenged the now-previous version of the AI rules. The U.S. Department of Justice had also joined that lawsuit.
SB-189 was one of several AI-related bills passed by the legislature this year. Lawmakers have said that this year’s measures are not the end of their interest in regulating an enormous and still-emerging technology, the effects of which may have seismic effects across Coloradans’ social, personal and professional lives.
“We have much more to do,” Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat and another SB-189 sponsor, said. “We have many more conversations to have, but hopefully this bill will serve as an example of what’s possible moving forward in a new technological society.”
