Colorado
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 addressed in 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. “But I think this is a great first step, a really significant and robust first step to make sure that technology works for everyone, not just a privileged few.”
Colorado’s move is being eyed by other states
The Colorado law originated from a similar proposal introduced in Connecticut earlier this year, which failed to pass there. Other places have instituted narrower policies. New York City requires employers using AI technologies to conduct independent “bias audits” on some software tools and share them publicly.
“So the states are clearly looking at each other to see how they can put their own stamp on the regulation,” said Helena Almeida, the vice president and managing counsel of ADP, which develops AI payroll services for a number of large companies.
“It’s definitely going to have an impact on all employers and deployers of AI systems,” said Almeida of the Colorado law.
Matt Scherer, an attorney at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said companies have been using various automatic systems, not even referred to as AI, to make employment decisions for at least the last eight years.
“We really have so little insight into how companies are using AI to decide who gets jobs, who gets promotions, who gets access to an apartment or a mortgage or a house or healthcare. And that is a situation that just isn’t sustainable because, again, these decisions are making crucial aspects that make major impacts on people’s lives,” he said.
But he’s concerned Colorado’s law doesn’t allow individuals a specific right to sue for AI-related damages.
“There’s definitely a lot of worries among labor unions and civil society organizations that this bill just doesn’t have enough teeth to really force companies to change their practices.”
Plans to change the law are already underway – it’s just a start
When Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed SB24-205 in May, he told lawmakers he did so with reservations, writing, “I am concerned about the impact this law may have on an industry that is fueling critical technological advancements across our state for consumers and enterprises alike.”
He said it’s best decided by the federal government so there’s a national approach and a level playing field.
However, Polis said he hopes Colorado’s law furthers the discussion of AI, especially nationally, and he asked lawmakers to refine it before it takes effect. A state task force will meet in September to make recommendations in February. Polis has outlined areas of concern and asked them to focus regulations on software developers rather small companies that use AI systems.
Polis said the law could be used to target those using AI even when it’s not intentionally discriminatory.
“I want to be clear in my goal of ensuring Colorado remains home to innovative technologies and our consumers are able to fully access important AI-based products,” he wrote.
Industry is watching this law and others possibly coming
Michael Brent, of the Boston Consulting Group, works with companies as they develop and deploy AI systems to identify and try to mitigate the ways AI could harm communities.
“Companies have a desire to build faster, cheaper, more accurate, more reliable, less environmentally damaging” systems, he said. He said Colorado’s law could encourage transparency for people affected by AI.
“They can get into that space where they’re having that moment of critical reflection, and they can simply say to themselves, ‘You know what? I actually don’t want a machine learning system to be processing my data in this conversation. I would prefer to opt out by closing that window or calling a human being if I can.’”
For all the focus on creating comprehensive regulations Democratic Rep. Titone said Colorado is very much at the beginning of figuring it out with the tech industry.
“We have to be able to communicate and understand what these issues are and how they can be abused and misused.”
Bente Birkeland covers state government for CPR News.
Copyright 2024 CPR News
Denver Film is hosting its Silent Film Festival beginning Friday, including eight feature films and 11 shorts with live musical accompaniment.
Howie Movshovitz, Programmer for the Denver Silent Film Festival, joined CBS Colorado in the studio on Tuesday to highlight the film “Queen Kelly” and share what festivalgoers have to look forward to.
In the film “Queen Kelly”, produced in 1928-1929, a convent girl is abducted and seduced by a prince betrothed to a mad queen, an event that drastically changes the course of her life.
“People talk about ‘Queen Kelly’ as a restoration, but it isn’t because it was never finished. In 1928, Gloria Swanson got together with her producer/lover Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, and they got together with Eric von Stroheim, a celebrity director, and they went to make Queen Kelly. And about halfway into it, Gloria Swanson fired him,” Movshovitz said.
He said that it’s unlikely the three of them would have been able to get along. Although the film was incomplete, he says there have been many attempts to restore it.
“A man named Dennis Doros and his partner/wife, Amy Heller, at Milestone Films did a reconstruction of it, and then a reconstruction of it. It’s been done a number of times, and this is the most recent,” Movshovitz explained. “They work from script. They work from outtakes, the visual quality of what von Stroheim shot, he was a genius, is fabulous. But it’s, of course, an imaginative response to a 1929 movie.”
Movshovitz says the love of silent films is not just about nostalgia.
“There are many films that are utterly brilliant, utterly fabulous, and still work perfectly well today,” he said. “So, it’s a kind of film that people don’t look at very much, but it doesn’t need sympathy, it doesn’t need nostalgia. It needs people to understand that, just as we read old books and don’t think of them as old books, silent film has its own majesty.”
Watching silent films with musical accompaniment makes the experience unique, said Movshovitz, adding that the festival has a skilled group of musicians performing.
The Denver Silent Film Festival runs from April 10-12 at the Sie Film Center in Denver. Click here to learn more about the featured films and to purchase tickets.
Colorado
Colorado’s New Speed Cameras Can’t Be Outsmarted by Waze or Radar Detectors for Good Reason
- Colorado has launched an automated speed camera program on a stretch of I-25, where cameras calculate average speed versus a single instant reading.
- The cameras make radar detectors and alerts from apps such as Waze obsolete, but they’ve greatly reduced excessive speeds in high-risk areas like work zones.
- Violators face a $75 fine mailed to their registered address, with no points added to their license; vehicles without license plates can evade fines.
Since 2023, the Colorado Department of Transportation has had the power to implement speed cameras in what it deems high-risk corridors where speeding is prevalent, such as work zones. The Colorado Speed Enforcement Program has been used in the past to better patrol a stretch of Colorado Highway 119 between Boulder and Longmont during construction, and it’s now popping up along a stretch of I-25 south of Fort Collins, about 35 miles north of Denver, where workers are adding new express lanes.
Speeding in construction zones has obvious dangers for drivers and workers, as well as law enforcement. Using automated detection is easier and safer than trying to patrol construction zones, which tend to have narrow lanes and little or no usable shoulders.
Enforcement for the five-mile corridor began on April 2. Prior to that, there was a 30-day warning period during which would-be violators received a notice but no fine by mail. Before monetary penalties went into effect, CDOT saw a 90 percent reduction of excessive speed in the targeted zone.
Waze May Not Help
Alerts from apps like Waze that warn you to slow down for speed cameras won’t necessarily save you from a fine here. Instead of taking an instant speed reading at one location like radar-based units, the system uses pairs of cameras—officially automated vehicle identification systems—set a distance apart that snap photos of each car, specifically its license plates. Average speed over the stretch is then calculated using the time it took to cover the known distance.
If that average is over the posted speed limit—some outlets are reporting a grace threshold of 10 mph—a bill of $75 for the civil penalty will be mailed to the vehicle’s registered address. In part because the system doesn’t know who was driving at the time, the owner and driver do not receive points on their license. CDOT says most of the revenue collected goes back into funding the Speed Enforcement Program.
The cameras are marked and preceded by warning signs set at least 300 feet up the highway. If you happen to be speeding when passing the first photo location, you still have a shot at avoiding a fine. As long as you slow down enough before reaching the next camera, you can bring the average down to something legal.
License Plates Required
Unfortunately, this is yet another incentive for drivers in Colorado to run their cars without license plates or skip registering them at all (ahem, sovereign citizens), which is already a big problem in the state. License-plate readers used to enforce express-lane tolling have the same issue. We have contacted CDOT to ask what happens if a vehicle without a license plate speeds through the enforcement zone; we’ll update this story if we hear back.
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Ever since David was a wee Car and Driver intern, he has kept a spreadsheet listing all the vehicles he’s driven and tested. David really likes spreadsheets. He can parallel-park a school bus and once drove a Lincoln Town Car 63 mph in reverse. After taking a break from journalism to work on autonomous vehicles, he’s back writing for this and other automotive publications. When David’s not searching for the perfect used car, you can find him sampling the latest in gimmicky, limited-edition foodstuffs.
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