Highlights
Colorado officials are seeking to delay the United States’ first comprehensive AI law until January 2027 to allow more time to revise regulations criticized as “too broad, too vague.”
The law applies to companies with more than 50 employees using or building AI for critical decisions such as hiring or lending.
Efforts to revise or delay the law during the current legislative session failed, meaning only a special session called by the governor can now change its effective date of Feb. 1, 2026.
Almost exactly a year after signing Colorado’s artificial intelligence regulations bill into law, Gov. Jared Polis and other government leaders are calling for a delay of the law’s implementation until January 2027.
“[It] is clear that more time is needed to continue important stakeholder work to ensure that Colorado’s artificial intelligence regulatory law is effective and implementable,” wrote Polis, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, Attorney General Philip Weiser, Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Joe Neguse and Rep. Brittany Pettersen, in a May 5 letter sent to the state General Assembly on AI.
Senate Bill 24-205, known colloquially as the Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act, was signed into law in May 2024. It is the first comprehensive enactment of AI regulations in the United States that could “serve as a model for other states and influence future federal legislation or regulation,” according to the National Association of Attorneys General.
While Utah was the first state to enact state-level AI regulations, Colorado “imposes farther-reaching requirements, including a new general duty of care” to protect individuals from any different treatment arising from the use of an AI system, the association said.
The Colorado law affects companies building or using AI that have more than 50 employees when it affects important decisions like hiring, lending, employment and the like.
That means if a small business with 100 employees uses an AI-powered recruitment tool to hire workers, any differentiated treatment arising from its algorithms puts the company potentially in violation of the law.
The regulations are supposed to take effect Feb. 1, 2026. When the bill became law a year ago, Polis said there would be ample time to make changes. However, despite months of negotiations with businesses, consumer groups and other stakeholders — even until midnight Tuesday (May 6) — the lawmakers ran out of time. The current legislative session ended Wednesday (May 7).
The Colorado law has been criticized by businesses, technology groups and AI startups in the state, as well as by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Consumer Technology Association and others, Security Industry Association reported last year.
“Industry groups worry the act is too rigid and vague, while consumer advocates argue it doesn’t go far enough,” according to a Feb. 11 blog post by Baker Donelson.
The law firm said in the post that criticisms of the act include that it was “too broad, too vague,” constituted “a raw deal for small businesses,” and would lead to “enforcement nightmares.”
In April, the state’s Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, who introduced the act, came up with a compromise bill to loosen AI regulations and delay implementation. However, he later killed it after facing complaints from businesses and consumer groups, The Sum & Substance reported Friday (May 9).
Now the only way to delay or make changes to the act is if Polis convenes a special session because the next legislative session is not until January 2026 — a month before the current AI regulations take effect.
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