No sooner had Colorado’s legislature punted on AI, yet again, during this summer’s special session — than a Homer Simpson-worthy “Doh!” might as well have pealed out across the state. 

It would have been an acknowledgment lawmakers had blown it, for the time being, in making Colorado a more welcoming destination for the development of the rapidly expanding technology. We are falling behind fast.

Don’t take our word for it; consider the input of a panel of national experts who weighed in at last week’s Site Selection Conference hosted by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and arranged by the chamber’s Economic Development Corporation. 

Among the hurdles they see to Colorado’s ability to attract wide-ranging investment: As reported by The Gazette, it’s the state’s regulatory pipeline for getting artificial intelligence-related projects approved.

Lawmakers had been called into the August session by Gov. Jared Polis in part to revisit a sweeping overreach they had enacted in 2024 to regulate artificial intelligence. Those AI regs were so poorly thought through that even Polis, who signed the effort into law, publicly aired second thoughts only weeks later. He was responding, rightly if belatedly, to concerns in the tech sector that the heavy-handed law would smother the development and use of artificial intelligence in its proliferating applications. 

The 2024 law doesn’t take effect until next Feb. 1, so lawmakers had all of their regular session last spring to work on a fix. Yet, by session’s end in May, they had made no progress.

Hence, the special session. But a powerful faction of ruling Democrats dug in its heels in defense of reckless liability provisions in the 2024 law. It scuttled any compromise legislation that could have emerged. 

So, lawmakers merely pushed off implementation until next June. That gives them the next regular session to make headway. But given their track record, we’re not hopeful.

For his part, Polis once again has convened a group of tech companies and consumer advocates in an attempt to hammer out a compromise — a new set of state regulations everyone presumably could live with. We’re not hopeful about that effort, either.

And here’s the thing: Every day the current law stays on the books even though it’s not yet in force, the capital that the tech sector is pumping into AI’s proliferating applications will go to other states. 

Our “equity”-obsessed legislature’s overwrought fear — that AI technology inevitably must lead to discrimination against various consumers — has become the tail wagging the dog in their lawmaking on the subject. That’s why they are resisting changes to the current unworkable law. 

Central to the problem with the 2024 law is its focus on countering “algorithmic discrimination.” It sets unattainable standards for development and use of AI-driven software that would miss their mark and succeed only in squelching the technology and chasing off AI innovators to less oppressive states. An economic analysis released recently by Colorado’s Common Sense Institute says the law “could impose severe economic costs on the state if it goes into effect…”

Lawmakers also seem to be averse so far to calls, including from Polis himself, to stand down on the subject altogether and wait for Congress to pass a national standard. That would avoid a 50-state patchwork of AI regulations and unshackle Colorado.

But AI’s investors and developers aren’t about to wait around for our lawmakers to pull their heads out of the sand. 

At this point, Colorado policymakers would do well to set aside all further attempts to regulate at the state level — and await a federal framework from Congress. It could level the playing field for the technology to flourish and achieve its anticipated potential — including in Colorado.