Colorado Legislature Again Amends Landmark AI Law  

In 2024, the Colorado Legislature passed a first-in-the-nation AI law regulating the use of AI in making important decisions about Coloradans’ access to jobs, health care, education, housing, and other life necessities. Gov. Jared Polis signed the law despite expressing “reservations.” Ever since its passage, the Colorado AI Act has been at the center of state and federal discussions about how to regulate AI. 

This week, the Colorado Legislature passed SB 26-189, a bill that repeals significant portions of the Colorado AI Act and further delays its effective date. Gov. Polis has publicly indicated that he will sign the legislation. This move comes after failed attempts to amend the law during the 2025 legislative session and a 2025 special session called by Gov. Polis, in part, to consider amendments to the AI Act. 

SB 26-189 removes many important safety and testing requirements that were in the original AI Act, including: the duty of care for developers and deployers to avoid algorithmic discrimination, the requirement that deployers establish risk management programs, the requirement that deployers conduct impact assessments, and reporting requirements to the Attorney General.  

The law’s primary still requires disclosures to Coloradans who have been the subject of a consequential decision made by a company using an automated decisionmaking technology. Coloradans also have limited rights if they receive an adverse decision, including the right to correct inaccurate personal information and the right to obtain human review and reconsideration in some cases. However, many industries and entities that are likely to use automated decisionmaking technology in making consequential decisions are exempt from these requirements.  

The law requires the Attorney General to conduct rulemaking before the law takes effect on January 1, 2027. The Attorney General has exclusive enforcement authority, and individual Coloradans do not have the right to hold companies who violate their rights accountable in court.  

The Colorado AI Act has become a prime target for the Trump Administration in its attempts to preempt state AI legislation. Notably, Gov. Polis publicly supported GOP efforts to pass a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation, despite vocal bipartisan opposition 40 attorneys general (including Colorado’s AG Phil Weiser), hundreds of legislators, and hundreds of public interest organizations.  

The Department of Justice recently moved to intervene in a lawsuit xAI filed in April challenging the AI Act, particularly the requirements around algorithmic discrimination. The suit claims that provisions of the AI Act violate the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. SB 26-189 removes many of the provisions at issue in the lawsuit, which may make some or all of the claims moot.  

EPIC strongly supports states’ ability to protect their residents from tech-related harms and has advocated for centering privacy and other civil rights in AI policy across the states and the federal government for years.