When the Legislature passed Senate Bill 24-205 last year — governing the development and use of artificial intelligence in Colorado — lawmakers appeared to grasp that AI is big.

Problem is, a lot of lawmakers didn’t seem to realize AI is in fact so big — so complex, with such wide-ranging and profound implications for the economy and all of society — it was too big for their bill to get right. What emerged from the 2024 session, as it turned out, stood to backfire on the technology and do far more harm than good.

Even the bill’s backers acknowledged that and did so almost from the start.

Gov. Jared Polis was expressing misgivings shortly after signing the bill into law. Polis, joined by Attorney General Phil Weiser and Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez — the bill’s own sponsor who introduced it in the state Senate — wrote a letter to the business community last summer acknowledging the measure’s serious flaws.

Polis promised to have the Legislature revisit and revise the new law before its Feb. 1 2026 implementation date amid fears it would stifle innovation yet wouldn’t address the concerns raised by its authors.

And yet, here we are a year later, with only weeks to go in the 2025 session. Neither Rodriguez nor other members of the Legislature have released a draft of legislation to replace last year’s bill. So, the original bill is still on track to take effect in 10 months.

Bottom line: Lawmakers are just about out of time to avert a tech train wreck.

Earlier in the current session we called here on Polis to impanel a special task force on the subject, composed of tech, business and legal experts. The aim was to ensure the rewrite of of SB 24-205 is on target.

With no movement on that front — and no time left to debate the dizzying dynamics of AI before session’s end — the only prudent action for the Legislature now is to hit the pause button. It should amend the new law to delay its implementation for at least a year if not longer.

The governor and attorney general would be relieved. So would the tech sector that created AI in the first place and continues to develop it. It would give all stakeholders a chance to take in the big picture.

Colorado, led by its higher ed institutions and tech sector, is on course to become a global epicenter of quantum technology — pivotal to the development of AI. It’s crucial we get it right.

Let’s be clear, the problems with the current law are serious.

Foremost among its failings is its focus on countering “algorithmic discrimination” — a debatable concern that became the tail wagging the dog for a Legislature obsessed with “equity.” Accordingly, the law wildly overregulates. It sets unattainable standards for development and use of AI-driven software that would miss their mark and would succeed only in smothering the technology and chasing off AI innovators to less oppressive states.

Algorithmic discrimination is itself more theory than reality. The Colorado Attorney General’s Office has received no reports of discrimination caused by AI in the last five years.

Make no mistake, Colorado’s tech economy is at risk. Lawmakers seemed so determined to make Colorado the first state to create its own regulatory framework for AI that they overreached and will hamstring it, instead.

Colorado needs to slow down and get back on the right track to ensure AI can thrive. That may involve taking a new approach to state regulation or, as many in the tech sector have urged, deferring to Congress to develop one national set of standards.

Either way, it will take time. Lawmakers must make sure we have it.