Signal Colorado AI Act (SB 24-205) Repealed Before Taking Effect; Replaced by SB 26-189

Summary

Colorado's original AI Act, SB 24-205, never actually took effect: after Governor Polis signed SB 25B-004 on August 28, 2025 to postpone its effective date from February 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026, the legislature repealed the law outright before that date arrived. Legal pressure escalated in April 2026 when Elon Musk's xAI filed suit and obtained a court stay, accelerating work on a replacement statute. Governor Polis signed the replacement, SB 26-189 (the Automated Decision-Making Technology Act), on May 14, 2026, after it passed the Colorado House 57-6 and the Senate 34-1; it takes effect January 1, 2027 and reportedly shifts the law's focus from an algorithmic-discrimination duty toward disclosure-based requirements. Separately, President Trump's executive order "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence," signed December 11, 2025, named Colorado's original law as the only state AI measure it specifically cited, directing the Attorney General to form a litigation task force against conflicting state AI laws. The order also required the Secretary of Commerce and the FTC to publish, by March 11, 2026, an evaluation of burdensome state AI laws and a preemption policy statement, while excluding child-safety regulation, AI infrastructure permitting, and state government AI procurement from that preemption push. Note: this update corrects the earlier record — Colorado's law did not remain in force as of June 30, 2026 as previously reported; it had already been repealed and replaced.