Two years of intense debate in Colorado over how artificial intelligence should be regulated ended with little fanfare early Tuesday when the legislature passed a compromise measure watering down — and once again delaying — the state’s first-in-the-nation law imposing rules on the technology.
Instead of requiring companies, governments and other groups that create and use artificial intelligence to disclose how their AI systems help make decisions on things like hiring, loans and housing, they would just have to notify consumers when the technology is being used to make such consequential decisions. They would also have to give consumers an opportunity to appeal.
The measure, Senate Bill 189, also makes a big change by pushing back the start date of the law regulating AI to January 2027 from June. That law was passed two years ago and has yet to go into effect.
Senate Bill 189 passed the House by a 57-6 vote and cleared the Senate 34-1. The measure, which had broad bipartisan support in both chambers, now heads to Gov. Jared Polis to be signed into law.
“Everybody lost and everybody won,” said Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, a Denver Democrat and main sponsor of Senate Bill 189. “We still have consumer protections. It’s not as much as I would have liked. We’re still the only state in the country to pass this legislation.”
Colorado’s AI regulation saga began in 2024, when the legislature passed Senate Bill 205, the nation’s first comprehensive law governing the technology. Almost immediately after Polis signed it into law, he, Rodriguez and Attorney General Phil Weiser, whose office is charged with enforcement, signed a letter vowing to revisit and change the policy, citing concerns from the tech industry.
But attempts to reach a deal between businesses and consumer advocates during last year’s regular lawmaking term and a special legislative session in August failed. Staring down the fact that Senate Bill 205 was supposed to take effect in February, the legislature punted the start date to June to give the General Assembly more time to iron out a compromise.
Polis formed a working group made up of tech, businesses, labor and legal leaders, which came up with a framework that led to Senate Bill 189. The legislation sailed through the Capitol in less than two weeks with few changes and limited resistance.
It felt as if the AI policy fire that raged in Colorado for 24 months was suddenly extinguished faster than ChatGPT could respond to a query.
Brittany Morris Saunders, president and CEO of the Colorado Technology Association, a trade group central to the negotiations on the state’s AI policy, said Senate Bill 189 “represents meaningful progress for Colorado and a more balanced path forward.”
“For more than two years, CTA has worked with policymakers, member companies, and partners across the business and technology communities to advance a framework that protects consumers while allowing Colorado companies to innovate, hire and grow,” she said in a written statement. “This bill is a compromise, shaped by intentional stakeholder engagement, and moves Colorado toward a more workable approach for startups, small businesses, employers, and technology leaders across our state.”
The People’s Alliance for Responsible Technology, or PART, a consortium of labor and consumer protection groups, also lauded the passage of Senate Bill 189.
“This bill is a good first step to protect the interests of everyday Coloradans from some of the negative consequences of AI,” Kjersten Forseth, legislative director for AFL-CIO and a spokesperson for PART, said in a written statement. “As this technology further integrates into our daily lives, there’s still work to be done to ensure Big Tech companies are transparent and accountable. But we’re encouraged that there’s now a path to hold developers accountable when their technologies result in discrimination and other harm.”
But not everyone was ecstatic about the end result.
State Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat who voted for the bill, said it’s a problem that consumers — and sometimes the developers and deployers of AI themselves — don’t know how the technology works.
“These black boxes are deciding who gets hired, who gets housing, who gets to go to their dream school,” he said. “I find it incredibly alarming that it took six months to get to this bill — a bill that does nowhere near enough to protect the people of Colorado when AI is making decisions that could make or break our lives.”
Mabrey said he was voting in favor of the bill because some regulation is better than none. But he urged lawmakers to keep evaluating what kinds of regulations should be imposed on AI, and he voiced support for letting consumers — not just the state’s attorney general — file lawsuits when they think they’ve been wronged.
Mabrey vowed to force the legislature to debate changes to the law in the future.