Today, Colorado has a chance to pick a side: the people, or AI companies and billionaires.
A Conversation with State Representative Brianna Titone about the imminent threat facing the nation's first laws to govern AI
For years I worked at multiple AI companies from Denver, including Palantir Technologies, where my job was to illustrate in detail how AI decision-making platforms work to stakeholders including the Pentagon, Health Agencies, and top automotive companies. What I discovered horrified me. The public does not have sufficient understanding about how these platforms make decisions that affect their lives, and how they circumvent and violate basic democratic processes.
AI platforms can be understood as unregulated and invisible architectures that affect all of our lives — even in lethal ways — and Colorado has a historic chance to be the first state to recognize their role in discriminatory and illegal practices. With the speed of development of AI technologies, failure to pass the AI Sunshine Act this week — supported by ACLU Colorado, Colorado AFL-CIO, and the Center for Democracy and Technology (summary below) — will leave my neighbors, and by extension, all Americans, with little hope to counter the exploitation of their data by corporations and authoritarian governments.
The world is currently experiencing a mass-awakening regarding the risks of AI, as well as the fraudulent nature of the narratives which have pushed these tools into every corner of our lives. At this point, most of us have first or secondhand experience with executives who have rallied under the banner of “AI transformation” in order to further surveillance on customers and employees, and have seen how AI is used to establish greater regimes of control for profit.
As the world comes to terms with the reality that AI tools are not panacea to a broken economy and administration, but instead, serve to prop this economy and pursue the enemies of the administration, Governor Polis of Colorado, along with lawmakers known as the “Opportunity Caucus,” are about to dismantle the FIRST IN THE NATION protections for consumers from discrimination by AI. Not only would this destroy Colorado’s historic opportunity to be a world-leader in AI governance, but it would take away the rights of people in Colorado. The recent bill supported by Governor Polis would strip the right of individuals to sue AI businesses that violate the Colorado’s Colorado Consumer Protection Act — meant to protect consumers against deceptive and unfair practices.
Nonetheless, even as every-day Americans arrive at the realization that AI is doing more harm than good, our leaders continue to acquiesce to venture capital, and feed into fraudulent and outdated narratives regarding the usefulness of AI tools. Few people stand in their way. But among them, one politician in Colorado stands out: State Representative Brianna Titone. She has led efforts to protect consumers, defending the pioneering bills she has sponsored through relentless and coordinated attacks that have sought to circumvent democracy and placate big business.
This week — as the Colorado State Legislature meets to debate AI legislation — she joins rights organizations and supporters in the senate to fight the relentless lobbying of big-business, as Denver joins cities around the world in historic, coordinated marches against Big Tech.
Above, you can find an interview with Brianna Titone which I recorded last week at the footsteps of Colorado’s Capitol, and below, you can find a summary of the AI Sunshine Act.
Opening the Algorithmic Black Box: How the AI Sunshine Act Will Ensure Transparency and Accountability When Algorithms Impact Our Lives
Via Towards Justice
Corporations increasingly use hidden algorithmic decision systems (ADSs) to determine who gets hired or promoted, how much tenants pay for rent, who receives medical care, and more. While ADSs can be powerful tools that streamline and support business operations, they can also be unreliable and prone to errors and bias. Coloradans are experiencing real harm every day from the use of such systems, but they often do not know—much less have any recourse—when companies use ADSs to reject them using incorrect, biased, or illegally obtained information.
Coloradans should have a right to know when and how ADSs impact their lives. Colorado businesses and public agencies should have a right to information about the risk that errors and bias in the ADS systems they deploy could violate the law. And ADS developers should be incentivized to proactively combat such errors and bias.
The 2025 AI Sunshine Act does that, while simplifying current law and reducing obligations on Colorado businesses and public agencies. The bill would:
Ensure that Coloradans know when and how ADSs impact key decisions in their lives, including whether they are interviewed for a job, chosen for housing, get a loan, or are accepted into college, and how much they pay for rent and insurance.
Allow Coloradans to access and correct any inaccurate personal data used by hidden ADS to inform major decisions about their lives.
Require ADS developers to provide deployers with information about the risk that their ADS could lead to violations of Colorado’s civil rights and consumer protection laws, empowering deployers to efficiently utilize human review to prevent such violations.
Make developers jointly responsible with deployers when an ADS leads to a violation of existing law — unless the developer can demonstrate that the deployer misused the system — ensuring that Colorado businesses are not left holding the bag when unreliable or biased algorithms violate the law.
These are bare minimum protections that can be implemented to protect Coloradans and ensure that corporations don’t continue to use these life-altering technologies in the dark. As hidden ADSs increasingly impact Coloradans’ lives, there must be an opportunity to understand their role and ensure that existing laws can be brought to bear on these systems that, until now, have operated in a black box beyond public scrutiny.
🔥🔥🔥