Nick Coltrain at The Denver Post reports that Colorado leaders plan to keep pushing state AI rules despite a new Trump executive order favoring a single, minimally burdensome national framework and threatening legal challenges and potential funding penalties. Gov. Jared Polis argues that refining Colorado’s 2024 anti discrimination law would avoid federal funding risks tied to broadband dollars, even as he calls for Congress to act.
The article outlines how the state delayed implementation of its 2024 law into mid 2026 while an AI Policy Working Group tries to hammer out revisions. It also notes Attorney General Phil Weiser’s stance that, without congressional action, the president lacks free standing authority to punish states over AI laws, and details the BEAD funding stakes, with Colorado expecting hundreds of millions. Lawmakers like Rep. Brianna Titone remain intent on anti discrimination and product safety aims while industry voices seek clarity.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Trump’s order promotes a light touch national framework and threatens to fight state AI laws in court while dangling BEAD funding as leverage. Colorado says it will keep legislating.
- Polis wants Congress to pass one nationwide structure and says updating Colorado’s 2024 law could avoid federal funding risk.
- The state pushed its 2024 AI law’s start to June 2026 to rework the text through an AI Policy Working Group.
- AG Phil Weiser argues the president lacks free standing authority to punish states without Congress, and pledges to defend Colorado in court if needed.
- Rep. Brianna Titone continues to pursue guardrails against algorithmic discrimination while balancing product safety and liability questions.
My Bottom Line
I am nearly always the guy preaching that the best government is the government closest to home. But AI is different. We cannot have fifty conflicting regimes telling innovators, schools, hospitals, and small businesses fifty different things. On this one, I agree with the governor and the president: we need one national rulebook, not a patchwork that turns compliance into a scavenger hunt.
Under Democratic control, our state legislature has shown a habit of legislating by vibes rather than facts. AI is too important to hand to the virtue signalers under the Gold Dome. Set clear federal standards that protect consumers from real harms like discrimination and fraud, keep innovation moving, and give states room to implement, not improvise.
Colorado can keep workshopping language, fine. But the center of gravity should be a single national framework that preempts a balkanized mess. Build bright lines, require transparency and accountability where it actually matters, and stop turning cutting edge tech into another round of performative lawmaking. On AI, one rulebook. Full stop.
Or here’s an absolutely wild thought – don’t regulate it at all.
Source: The Denver Post
