In writing the country’s most sweeping AI law, Colorado focused on fairness, preventing bias

This spring Colorado passed the country's first comprehensive law over how companies and governments use artificial intelligence to make key decisions over people's lives.

“Whether (people) get insurance, or what the rate for their insurance is, or legal decisions or employment decisions, whether you get fired or hired, could be up to an AI algorithm,” warns Democratic State Rep. Brianna Titone, one of the main Legislative sponsors of the bill.

The law isn’t aimed at deep fakes or fraud, which some states, including Colorado, have addressedin other laws, but applies to how AI is used in evaluating people for things like school applications, hiring, loans, access to health care or insurance.

It takes effect in 2026 and requires companies and some government agencies to inform people when an AI system is used. If someone thinks the technology has treated them unfairly, the law allows them to correct the data it’s using or file a complaint. It sets up a process to investigate bad actors.

“If you were fired by an AI process and you say, ‘Well, this is impossible, there's no way I should be fired by this,’” Titone said, “you can find a resolution through the attorney general's office to say, ‘We need someone to intervene and to double check that this process actually didn't discriminate and have a bias against that person.’”

She said in some cases AI has been found to give people an advantage based on their names or hobbies such as, “if your name is Jared and you played lacrosse.”

Democratic State Rep. Manny Rutinel, another sponsor, said some provisions require companies to identify how algorithms could lead to discrimination and disclose how the data is used to train the systems.

“We still have a lot to do,” Rutinel said.