Colorado lawmakers hit a familiar wall — Big Tech’s influence — in effort to rewrite AI regulations

A group of Democratic lawmakers declared the breakthrough to their colleagues four days into the fresh special session a tentative agreement struck to rewrite the state s much-contested artificial intelligence regulations that would put an end to more than a year of protracted debate The Sunday night deal reached after days of uncertainty during a session otherwise focused on the state s budget would provide a path toward firmer tech oversight But by early the next afternoon the framework had collapsed Major tech companies and a leading business group hadn t agreed to a key provision that would hold companies liable if their AI-powered products were responsible for discriminating against people who say had applied for a job or a loan That lawmakers had publicized a deal came as a shock Anger and intensive lobbying followed Certain groups that had supported the framework began to back away just hours after the negotiations had appeared to be reaching the finish line When one Democratic lawmaker called a lobbyist friend to talk about the agreement the lobbyist replied There is no expletive deal The screaming was palpable announced Loren Furman the president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce which had been negotiating with Google and another lawmaker Neither Google nor the chamber had agreed to the framework Last week s deal-that-wasn t renewed concerns about the influence of major apparatus companies in the state Capitol alongside broader frustrations that lawmakers and business groups had been tasked under pressure from Gov Jared Polis with regulating a massive industry in a matter of days For progressive lawmakers and their allies there were echoes of the regular session in the spring when lawmakers overwhelmingly passed act regulating other tech sectors social media autonomous vehicles ride-hailing apps only for Gov Jared Polis to step in and veto them I believe that the governor s office and the influence that the tech industry has over the governor s office is a huge difficulty particularly when our constituents are rightfully and incredibly concerned about the influence of AI mentioned Rep Javier Mabrey a Denver Democrat who was involved in the special session s AI negotiations He also sponsored a bill that would have banned the use of rent-setting algorithms by landlords which could hike costs on renters That proposal too was vetoed by Polis earlier this year Last week instead of rewriting the state s current AI rules which would have taken effect in February without any intervention lawmakers exclusively delayed them They ll now take effect on June more than two years after they were signed into law an action that had set off immediate calls for changes to them by tech companies executive entities that use AI and by Polis who d half-heartedly signed the bill The delay means lawmakers will once again take up the issue in the coming months now that they ve bought themselves more time The regulations as now written will require hazard assessments and disclosures from companies that develop and use AI Amid a tug-of-war over how the rules should be amended the expected framework that emerged early last week demonstrated that there was likely a path out of the gridlock Negotiators on either side were optimistic about the next round of talks Other lawmakers and negotiators though argued that the tool companies and the chamber were key groups that needed to be more directly involved in approving the terms of the deal before it was declared Furman noted the innovation sector is a large and growing part of the state s market system policymakers can t close the state off to those companies she argued She and others objected to the notion that there was ever a deal given that they hadn t agreed to it and criticized the anti-tech comments from other lawmakers What I m learning in this building is that you have to stakehold with all organizations and if there are people who are not at the table then when you think you have a deal you might not disclosed Rep Michael Carter an Aurora Democrat He d also sponsored an AI bill and was involved in the final negotiations Gov Jared Polis left signs bills passed during the special legislative session at a media event where he also informed actions to help close a budget deficit caused by the federal tax bill in the Governor s Residence at Boettcher Mansion in Denver on Thursday Aug Next to him is Mark Ferrandino director of the Office of State Planning and Budgeting Photo by Hyoung Chang The Denver Post Regulating tech Lawmakers in the legislature s Democratic majorities broadly agree that companies should be held responsible if they make or use AI that discriminates against people during resume screenings reviews of loan applications or vitality care decisions And legislators argue that the August negotiations came close to figuring out how to do that without running afoul of Polis desire to protect Big Tech from regulations that he has revealed may hurt Colorado s ambitions of becoming an industry hub Polis whose office declined an interview request explained reporters Thursday that his latest tech-friendly vetoes and the ongoing debate about AI regulations exhibited that such policymaking was complicated and it s crucial to get it right A frequent AI user Polis made his fortune in the early dot-com rush Earlier this year he supported a tech-backed effort in Congress that would have blocked states from regulating AI for the next decade Coloradans are forward-looking and want to be on the cutting edge of adapting different technologies in our daily lives and work lives Polis declared And at the same time we want to be protected from discrimination We want to be safe when we re taking a car somewhere Tech and AI are complicated mentioned Suresh Venkatasubramanian a computer scientist who leads the Center for Technological Responsibility Reimagination and Redesign at Brown University But they re not so complicated he continued that they can t be regulated He s called for tighter consumer-focused guardrails on artificial intelligence and he co-authored A Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights for former President Joe Biden s administration State legislators don t have armies of staff members to talk through the particulars of artificial intelligence or algorithmic decision-making he announced They re often overwhelmed by better-financed lobbyists and tech companies that for all their futurist ideals are ultimately businesses trying to maximize profits Late this month when lawmakers returned to Denver to discuss the regulations more than lobbyists and firms registered a position on the bill with companies like Google Amazon and Workday as well as national tech groups all present The companies have a lot of power to show up with a couple of key lobbyists and to overwhelm the abilities that the legislatures have to think about this Venkatasubramanian explained arguing that the companies strategy is to delay and prevent And they ve done this successfully a number of times They come with full force saying We re tech companies you need to believe us or else we ll leave your state People don t know how to respond to that That s what happened when Rep Jenny Willford a Northglenn Democrat sponsored a bill this year to require more safety measures of ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft Willford sponsored the bill she has announced because she was allegedly sexually assaulted by a Lyft driver last year The companies commented the bill s provisions couldn t be implemented Uber threatened to leave the state if the bill passed and it urged drivers and users who opened its app to write to their lawmakers to oppose it Uber had also made the same threat in Minneapolis over a proposed minimum wage increase The bill passed with bipartisan majorities But Polis vetoed it in part because of Uber s threat to leave The bottom line is that this bill was ultimately about accountability and liability announced Willford who was the lawmaker who was explained by a lobbyist that no AI deal had been reached Them having liability for the harm that they ve caused and the actions they did not take in order to keep people safe We saw that with the AI bill this time around Sen Lindsey Daugherty an Arvada Democrat who sponsored the vetoed bill that would have regulated social media companies announced her proposal was more about protecting kids than cracking down on tech companies Still she disclosed its veto underscored that tech bills had an easier path to becoming law if the industry and Polis were on your side State Rep Jenny Willford speaks about her bill HB - with the sponsorship of Rep Meg Froelich left during the last day of the regular legislative session in the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on May Photo by Helen H Richardson The Denver Post Weighing compliance discrimination risks Furman the state chamber s CEO argued that specific tech bills had to be vetoed because companies fundamentally couldn t comply with them As for AI companies she announced they weren t opposed to negotiating liability including who should bear the legal cost if an AI system used by a company or a hospital is determined to discriminate against a job applicant or a victim But she commented they couldn t reach an agreement during a short special session It takes a surgical approach to figure out how to get your parties on the same side on this she stated If we were in a regular session we maybe could ve gotten there The task of rewriting the state s AI rules in a week was likely doomed from the start agreed Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez who sponsored the initial rules and the current attempt to rewrite them Other lawmakers and negotiators were frustrated that the AI bill was part of the special session at all He reported tech companies were reasonable with him during negotiations but the lobbying fight had been vicious I was ready to do the work and conversations were happening Rodriguez commented But once you put it on the special session calendar then you have to come up with program and start trying to negotiate in a short period of time The need for the regulations is real Venkatasubramanian reported even if tech companies will wield considerable muscle to block them Artificial intelligence systems and automated screening programs are prominent across various services in the United States and they re trained on content from an imperfect society Bias may not even be intentional He pointed to a paper about a common diagnostic algorithm used to determine access to high-risk cure Researchers exposed that it routinely lets healthier whites into the programs ahead of blacks who are less healthy according to the University of Chicago That was because the model was built on material that based the need for future therapy on the cost of prior healing Venkatasubramanian explained Because white people had access to more expensive remedy for a variety of systemic reasons the model picked up on that pattern and directed them toward better care The bias in AI systems and algorithms has been studied and understood for nearly two decades he mentioned Mitigating that liability was the goal of labor unions advocacy groups and progressive lawmakers during the special session They explained they sought to give users of those services the ability to see which statistics informed AI s decisions about them to correct it when it was wrong and to pursue lawsuits if the artificial intelligence system or the company that deployed it used the apparatus to discriminate Related Articles Polis orders M in cuts sweeps cash accounts to help close budget gap Colorado s legislature has filled a third of budget gap by slashing tax breaks Here s what comes next Colorado House condemns now-former lawmaker who took and shared photo of colleague for ridicule Live updates Legislature concludes special session on budget as Gov Jared Polis signs first bills Another artificial intelligence deal collapses as Colorado lawmakers budget fixes near finish line The bill also would ve cut particular of the regulatory requirements from the state s current regulations This is going to be one of the majority of significant citizens initiative fights in our generation mentioned David Seligman a Democratic attorney general candidate whose nonprofit law firm was involved in the AI negotiations And this is going to be the shape of it whether we can hold these companies accountable whether we re going to share in that wealth Those negotiations will now continue into next year Despite raw nerves from last week leaders from all sides were optimistic Rep Brianna Titone an Arvada Democrat who also sponsored the rule noted she d already taken the first efforts to start drafting a new bill The Colorado Hardware Association announced the delay provided the opportunity to work collaboratively on practical solutions that strengthen consumer trust safeguard jobs and preserve Colorado s competitiveness Furman explained the competing interests needed an adult in the room a mediator to help them work through the liability disagreement But she mentioned ground had been gained elsewhere and she argued that Big Tech firms weren t flatly opposed to regulation If we d spent five months working through this we might get there she announced But people want to have a narrative for political reasons a lot of times and they don t want to pay attention to a few of the areas where there could be consensus and instead they point the finger and blame Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot