Colorado Proposes Rules for Automated Decision-Making Technology and Chatbot Safety

Ah, marvellous. Colorado, the state that legalised weed and then discovered that regulating it is a full-time job, has decided that artificial intelligence needs the same treatment. The Department of Law has filed proposed rules for the Automated Decision-Making Technology Act and the Conversational AI Services (Chatbot Safety) Act, both of which crawl into effect on January 1, 2027. Eighteen months of runway for an industry that ships new models every fortnight — that's not a regulation timeline, that's a building society's notice period.

The topline obligations are a masterclass in legislative optimism. Chatbot operators must 'disclose AI interaction,' which is a bit like asking a phishing email to declare itself; 'estimate user age,' which is a capability the entire advertising industry has failed at since 1998; and protect minors from 'sexually explicit content and simulated emotional dependence.' Simulated emotional dependence. Somebody on the drafting team has clearly listened to their teenager crying at an anime girlfriend, and decided the solution is a state rule rather than a conversation about loneliness. Meanwhile the poor chatbot, at once too dangerous to talk to a child and too competent to need oversight, will presumably estimate the age of a 45-year-old man as 16 and trigger a safeguarding protocol.

It's all very hopeful, in the way that a stuffed owl on a mantelpiece is hopeful. California writes its AI law, Colorado copies the homework and changes a few words, and the federal government remains somewhere between a shrug and a nap. The one honest line in the whole document is the date clause — January 1, 2027, comfortably far away enough for everyone involved to have changed jobs before the first enforcement action. Cheers to the fine people of Denver; the bots will thank you for the head start.