Colorado is taking a stand to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace.

On May 8, 2024, the Colorado General Assembly passed Senate Bill 24-205 (SB205), Forbes reports.

In the bill’s summary, it wrote that it “requires a developer of a high-risk artificial intelligence system (high-risk system) to use reasonable care to avoid algorithmic discrimination in the high-risk system.”

Moreover, the bill described high-risk artificial intelligence systems as any machine-based system that plays a role in consequential decisions being made in education enrollment and education opportunities, employment and employment opportunities, financial and lending services, essential government services, healthcare services, housing, insurance, or legal services.

According to Forbes, the bill marks Colorado as the first U.S. state to establish a comprehensive law that not only addresses utilizing AI in employment but also in other critical sectors.

On May 17, Governor of Colorado Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 24-205 into law, according to Denver-7 News. While Polis acknowledged his concerns about how the law’s regulation could potentially affect technological advancements, he believes that protecting consumers is the most important issue at hand.

“Government regulation that is applied at the state level in a patchwork across the country can have the effect to tamper innovation and deter competition in an open market,” Polis wrote in a letter to the Colorado General Assembly, per Denver-7 News. “To that end, the important work of protecting consumers from discrimination and other unintended consequences of nascent AI technologies is better considered and applied by the federal government to limit and preempt varied compliance burdens on innovators and ensure a level playing field across states along with ensuring access to life-saving and money-saving AI technologies for consumers.”

Most recently, the Biden administration signed an executive order in October 2023 to set new standards for safety and security of AI, with Democrats wishing for him to pass further protective legislation in regard to the technology, per Denver-7.

Following Polis signing Senate Bill 24-205 into law on May 17, it is set to go into full effect in 2026, according to the outlet.