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Colorado AI Law Still Hasn't Taken Effect
Posted on 01/01/26
by Cynthia Pasquale
In 2024, Colorado became the first state to enact a comprehensive law to help protect consumers in interactions with businesses that use artificial intelligence to make significant decisions — from banks issuing loans to apartment complexes approving rental applications.
But more than a year later, the law still hasn’t taken effect.
Just weeks after the Colorado AI Act passed, Gov. Jared Polis (D) and others asked legislators to revise the statute following complaints from about 200 technology executives and venture capitalists. Last year, lawmakers tried to draft bills that would satisfy all stakeholders but succeeded only in delaying the law’s implementation until June 30 of this year.
“We’re at a real pivotal point now with this particular technology,” says state Rep. Brianna Titone (D-Arvada), who has worked for years on AI bills. “I fear that this sort of regulation ... if we’re unable to do it now, it may be impossible to do.”
AARP Colorado and other groups are urging lawmakers to create regulations that ensure transparency when AI systems are used for making consequential decisions, including for hiring, housing, education, finances and health care. They also want consumers to have the ability to challenge inaccurate reporting and adverse outcomes.
AI-generated reports, advocates say, can lead companies to make decisions based on outdated or inaccurate information and are also subject to human biases, which can lead to what the AI law refers to as “algorithmic discrimination.”
Karen Moldovan, AARP Colorado’s advocacy director, says a big area of concern for older people is in hiring practices.
“We want to be sure that older workers are having their resumes and backgrounds reviewed on merit and hours of experience and what they could bring to the position — and aren’t just automatically being rejected due to algorithmic decisions around age,” Moldovan says.
In October, Polis appointed a working group to try to rewrite the AI regulations. The law is expected to be the subject of debate during the legislative session, underway in January.
RAISING CONCERNS
The Colorado AI Act requires companies that use AI to implement a risk management policy, give consumers the chance to correct any incorrect personal data used in making consequential decisions and give people an opportunity to appeal a decision through human review if technically feasible, among other measures.
It also has requirements for AI developers, including providing users with high-level summaries of the type of data used to train AI systems.
Tech developers and businesses that use AI tools have concerns about who bears the responsibility for discrimination and argue that current regulations are too vague and costly to implement.
“Strong consumer protections must be paired with fair, workable rules for AI builders and users while avoiding regulations that sound good in concept but ultimately slow innovation,” wrote Loren Furman with the Colorado Chamber of Commerce and Brittany Morris Saunders with the Colorado Technology Association in an op-ed for Colorado Politics.
In a statement to the Bulletin, the Colorado Technology Association noted that the group looks forward to participating in Polis’ working group.
Consumers also have concerns — about how their data could be used. A 2024 Consumer Reports survey of 2,022 adults found that 66 percent reported they would be somewhat or very uncomfortable allowing banks to use AI or algorithms to determine whether they qualify for a personal loan. The survey also found that 58 percent would be uncomfortable with using AI or algorithms in hospital systems to help make diagnoses and treatment plans for them.
Titone, the Arvada lawmaker, says a deal with stakeholders was in the works during the August 2025 special legislative session with a bill called the AI Sunshine Act, though that effort failed. (As the Bulletin was going to press in December, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at curtailing state AI laws. What impact it might have on Colorado’s law was not immediately clear.)
Titone says it’s possible competing AI bills could emerge during the new legislative session.
“People are going to make money in AI no matter what,” she says. “We’re asking them to be safe and to do it responsibly.”
Cynthia Pasquale is a freelance writer and former editor at The Denver Post. She has written for the Bulletin since 2011.
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