Colorado’s special legislative session resumed Monday as lawmakers work to address a nearly $800 million budget shortfall and to solve a more protracted, muddy debate about the state’s artificial intelligence regulations before they take effect.
This story will be updated throughout the day.
11:20 a.m. update: Here’s more detail on the AI grand bargain that’s being drafted (see the first update for the machinations behind the deal). According to a fact sheet the deal’s backers are handing out, the deal will reduce how much information must be disclosed to people being screened for jobs or other services by AI. Developers of the technology — who are opposed to this deal — would have to provide assessments to businesses about civil rights risks.
The fact sheet also says the bill would “require developers to share responsibility for discrimination when it flows directly from the technology.” The liability piece of the negotiations has been a key sticking point, and the deal now appears to propose keeping AI developers, along with the companies and government agencies that misuse their tech, on the potential hook for violating state consumer-protection and antidiscrimination laws.
11:11 a.m. update: Good morning from a tired state Capitol, where lawmakers are planning a later start after a weekend of work and, for the Senate, a late Sunday night.
The news of the day is that progressive Democrats and their allies are close to a deal with more industry-aligned interests on revised artificial intelligence regulations, several people involved in those discussions said late Sunday night. The final details and language of that deal are still being ironed out and drafted into language today, but there’s a deal “on paper,” said Sen. Robert Rodriguez, the chamber’s majority leader and the sponsor of one of the AI bills.
His bill, Senate Bill 4, passed a first floor vote in the Senate on Sunday night, with notable amendments. The proposal broadly seeks to prevent discrimination by AI when it’s used to screen applicants for jobs, loans and university enrollment, among other things.
SB 4 is now being significantly — perhaps entirely — rewritten as of this morning, and a new version is expected to be considered by the Senate during a final vote in that chamber later in the day.
Rodriguez said Sunday night’s amendments were made before the deal was tentatively reached. He indicated that the two major sore spots in the bill — the amount of detail companies must provide to consumers about what information AI draws upon and who bears liability when AI discriminates against someone — were in advanced negotiations.
First batch of special session bills heads to Gov. Jared Polis
SB 4 is backed by progressive lawmakers and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and labor unions. But it’s opposed by AI developers and the companies that use their technology. They share concerns about who should bear responsibility if AI systems are found to have discriminated against an applicant.
Rodriguez and others involved in the negotiations indicated that opposition was beginning to split over that question. The tentative deal still assigns liability to either tech companies or the businesses and government agencies that use AI, he said, depending on who was the source of the discrimination.
“I now look at this as three groups,” Rodriguez said this morning of the negotiations. “You have labor, civil groups; you have the smaller (venture capitalists) and some small tech; and then you have Big Tech and some small-medium tech, and they all don’t agree. Two sides have aligned, and one’s on an island.”
To be clear, he means deployers of AI and consumer groups are moving closer together, while Big Tech is unhappy with the liability parts of the deal. Indeed, those tech companies are drifting toward the state’s current regulations, which everyone has — up until this point — hated.
Colorado legislature stutters and starts on tax bills as negotiations swirl on AI regulations
To quickly recap: Colorado passed regulations during the 2024 legislative session that are aimed at curbing discrimination by AI systems involved in making “consequential decisions,” like screening job, university or banking applications. They’re currently on track to take effect next February.
But those regulations have been criticized from across the spectrum, and Gov. Jared Polis directed lawmakers to tackle them during this special session that’s otherwise focused on the fallout of President Donald Trump’s tax bill.
While much of the debate has centered around SB-4, the House has advanced a competing bill. That proposal, House Bill 1008, is backed by more moderate legislators and the loose coalition of AI groups and the companies that use their tech. It would simply delay the state’s existing regulations until May, which would give lawmakers several more months to find a deal before the regular session convenes in mid-January. It passed an initial vote in the House on Sunday.
As for what else to expect today: The Senate is expected to take various votes on Democrats’ package of revenue-raising bills, part of the effort to fill the state’s $783 million budget hole caused by the federal tax bill.
That work has been considerably less dramatic, given that the Democrats who control the Capitol are largely aligned on how to proceed.
The session began Thursday but has dragged on, largely because of the AI debates. Because of the legislature’s procedural rules, the earliest lawmakers can conclude their work is Wednesday, and that assumes the AI bill passes key votes each day.
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