Colorado lawmakers and state officials say President Donald Trump’s recent order threatening to challenge state artificial intelligence regulations won’t deter their efforts to regulate the new technology — even if they face fresh legal fights or attempts to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
State officials and policymakers are treating Trump’s threat as even more reason to pass reworked regulations — as they’ve been trying to do for much of this year — as well as a challenge to be met in court. The executive order is seen by some as toothless and, ultimately, a paper tiger in the fight to protect consumers from a new, largely unregulated industry.
“Without congressional action, there is no free-standing authority for the president to challenge state AI laws or punish states for adopting laws he doesn’t like,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement.
On Dec. 11, Trump issued an executive order that emphasized “a minimally burdensome national policy framework” for the artificial intelligence industry. The broad and much-fought-about technology is rapidly embedding itself into everyday life, threatening to upend the economy and traditional decision-making.
Colorado lawmakers, seeking to prevent misuse of the technology, passed a law in 2024 that sought to keep AI from being used to discriminate — knowingly or not — against people seeking loans, renting apartments or applying for jobs. That law was one of the first in the nation, and it has not yet gone into effect.
During an August special session, lawmakers and the governor opted to push back its implementation from this February to the end of June to give themselves more time to find common ground on how to regulate the industry without stifling businesses in the state. The issue will return as the legislature convenes its regular 2026 session in mid-January.
In his new order, Trump — who has repeatedly assailed policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion — singled out Colorado’s pending law for “banning ‘algorithmic discrimination’ (that) may even force AI models to produce false results in order to avoid a ‘differential treatment or impact’ on protected groups.”
To bring states in line with his vision for the AI industry, Trump’s order says the government could withhold federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment, or BEAD, program funding meant in part to expand internet access into rural areas. Colorado recently announced it expected $420 million from the program, with hopes for another $400 million to follow.
Trump also is convening an “AI Litigation Task Force” to fight state AI laws it opposes in court.
“We remain in the earliest days of this technological revolution and are in a race with adversaries for supremacy within it,” the executive order states. “To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation.”
In a statement, Gov. Jared Polis — who wants the state’s new regulations relaxed — cited the threat to the funding as all the more reason for the state to find a new framework. He, like Trump and others, slammed Congress for not passing any meaningful rules for the technology and instead leaving it to the states.
California, Utah and Texas have also passed laws setting some AI rules for the private sector.
“We need Congress to pass a comprehensive, nationwide regulatory structure that provides important consumer protections while fostering innovation,” Polis said in a statement last week. “I’m very frustrated by the lack of action in Congress on this important issue. … The longer Congress dithers, the more patchwork approach we will see.”
In the absence of federal legislation, he said, “we are taking action by standing up the AI Policy Working Group, which is working to find consensus on a new bill that can be introduced in 2026 (and) avoid losing BEAD funding.”
Brittany Morris Saunders, the president and CEO of the Colorado Technology Association, which is on the working group, said in a statement that she was “encouraged by the progress being made” to update Colorado’s law.
“Federal actions, including the president’s recent executive orders, do not change our commitment to this process or the momentum of the group’s work,” Morris Saunders said.
State Rep. Brianna Titone, an Arvada Democrat and chief proponent of regulating AI to prevent discrimination, called Trump’s executive order “a wish list, more than anything,” and not something she takes seriously.
Even the threat to withhold BEAD funding would be “counterproductive,” she said, since artificial intelligence relies on high-speed internet.
Titone said her focus would remain on finding ways to prevent discrimination through the use of AI and to promote product safety, while finding the balance for liability, so that responsibility for misuse is appropriately assigned. That’s a major sticking point in the ongoing fight regarding state laws.
On Tuesday, the legislature’s Joint Technology Committee, which Titone chairs, hosted a panel of AI experts. They warned about the problems the technology continues to pose, despite soaring promises from some of its biggest backers. The ongoing issues include inherent biases embedded in AI, an overall lack of transparency and inconsistency in how the technology behaves.
A better regulatory environment, one that promotes the best possible products, will only benefit the industry and consumers, Titone argued, dismissing Trump’s central argument about regulations stifling innovation. Titone, who is not on the AI working group, said she’s continuing to look at how to apply existing consumer protection laws to the new technology.
“People who are using and consuming these products don’t want to be dealing with the dangers and risks,” Titone said. “They just want to use the product and get the benefit that they’re promised it will deliver.”
Meanwhile, Weiser promised in his statement to defend against any federal threats to funding or the state’s autonomy.
“If this administration seeks to punish Colorado by withdrawing funds or (to) otherwise undermine our ability to protect kids from AI chatbots, take action against scammers using AI, or address other important concerns, I will protect Colorado and challenge such efforts in court,” he said.
Weiser, a Democrat who’s running for governor in 2026, founded the Silicon Flatirons technology and public policy center while he was at the University of Colorado Law School. He called for a national policy on AI — but absent that, for states to take up the mantle.
The remedy for flawed state laws is to fix those laws, Weiser said, adding that he’s called on lawmakers “to address important concerns raised about Colorado’s AI law.”
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, another candidate for governor in the Democratic primary, also called for congressional action to regulate AI. And states should step up in the meantime, he said, “to develop common-sense frameworks to safeguard their communities while preserving conditions that allow businesses and start-ups to thrive.”
“President Trump’s executive order to block state laws regulating artificial intelligence is a dangerous overreach of power that will only make it more difficult to keep our communities safe while promoting innovation,” Bennet said in a statement from his Senate office. “While AI has enormous potential to increase productivity and grow our economy, this unilateral action weakens Colorado’s ability to protect children and consumers.”
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