Fighting against AI Discrimination and Overreach at the State Capitol

Artificial intelligence is making major decision impacting our daily lives – Colorado needs to act now.

Corporations increasingly use hidden algorithmic decision systems (ADSs) to determine who gets hired, promoted, disciplined; how much tenants pay for rent or gets a mortgage; who receives medical care, andmore. While ADSs can be powerful tools that streamline and support business operations, they can also be unreliable and prone to errors and bias. Coloradans are experiencing real harm every day from the use of such systems, but they often do not know—much less have any recourse—when companies use ADSs to reject them using incorrect, biased, or illegally obtained information.

Coloradans should have a right to know when and how ADSs impact their lives, they should have the right to know what information was used to make the decision, and they should have the right to correct that information. In addition to those companies using ADS systems to cause harm, developers of ADS systems should be held responsible for the harms the systems cause.

On August 6th, the Governor called a special session to deal with the state’s budget implications of Trump’s HR 1. Instead of concentrating on the task at hand, the Governor added the regulation of artificial intelligence to the call. The Governor wanted to significantly erode existing protections for workers and consumers in law or completely repeal them. The CO AFL-CIO, in a coalition of 50 other state and national organizations, proposed a bill to simplify existing law – the 2025 AI Sunshine Act.

Working day and night through the Special Session, the CO AFL-CIO was able to come to a compromise on the AI Sunshine Act. But Google, Amazon, the Colorado and US Chamber of Commerce (carrying the water for Google), and Workday came out swinging. Ultimately, the session ended with the existing law’s implementation extending to June 30, 2026.  So, the 2026 session will be more fighting over this important policy impacting Coloradans daily.