A proposal moving through the legislature during the Special Session would impose broad new liability on Colorado businesses that use or develop artificial intelligence (AI).
New amendments to Senate Bill 004 would undermine Colorado’s long-standing anti-discrimination protections for Coloradans. The changes would make developers jointly liable for discrimination caused by deployers (businesses that use AI), even though developers do not interact directly with consumers or have access to the data necessary to determine whether an employment decision is discriminatory.
Under current state and federal law, employers are held accountable for discrimination in hiring, firing, and other employment decisions. This framework ensures that the people making the actual decisions are the ones held responsible. The proposed changes would wrongly impose liability on developers, who simply create or provide the technology – not the decisions made with it.
This means that if multiple parties are found responsible for discrimination, any one of them could be required to pay the entire amount of damages. For example, if a business was found to be just 5% at fault, it could still be held responsible for paying 100% of the damages. This would apply to any business regardless of whether they are a deployer or developer.
If passed, Colorado would become the only state in the country with this kind of liability system. The result would be higher legal risks for all businesses, fewer opportunities for AI development, and serious harm to Colorado’s business climate and competitiveness. This rushed, late-session proposal is bad for innovation, bad for employers and bad for Colorado’s economy.
Please contact your legislators today and urge them to oppose SB 004 and any amendments that shift liability onto developers.