Colorado Postpones Implementation of Colorado AI Act, SB 24-205

A legal update reports that Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, signed SB 25B-004 on August 28, 2025, pushing back the start of the Colorado AI Act. The law was originally due to start on February 1, 2026, and the new effective date is June 30, 2026. The delay followed a special session the governor convened, where legislators failed to agree on changes to the original statute. Polis worried that, as written, it would be costly for state agencies, local governments and the businesses it covers.

The Colorado AI Act, first enacted as SB 24-205, is described as the first broad state statute of its type. It aims to prevent algorithmic discrimination by regulating high-risk AI, draws partly on the EU AI Act, and sets duties for developers and deployers of such systems when they are used in consequential decisions.

Among the key provisions, developers and deployers alike must take reasonable care to guard consumers against algorithmic discrimination risks that are known or reasonably foreseeable. Deployers must conduct and document impact assessments for each high-risk system they use. Developers must give deployers statements covering a system's purpose, intended uses and known risks, and must keep a public website summarizing the high-risk systems they have built and how they manage foreseeable discrimination risks. Deployers must tell consumers when a high-risk system is used in a consequential decision about them, including an opt-out right in some cases, and must explain what the system is for, what the decision concerns, and how a consumer can appeal an unfavorable result. Only the Colorado Attorney General may enforce the act.