Colorado AI Act (SB 24-205): A Plain-English Guide for Developers

August 2025. Colorado calls a special session to fix their AI law before it takes effect. Legislators showed up to amend SB 24-205. They fought for days. Couldn't agree on a single substantive change. All they managed was pushing the effective date five months, from February 1 to June 30, 2026. That tells you where this law stands. Controversial enough for a special session. Too settled to actually change. It's taking effect as written. The Two Roles Colorado splits the world into developers (you build or substantially modify an AI system) and deployers (you use one in production). Many companies are both. Build an AI hiring tool and use it to hire your own employees? Both sides. Obligations stack. "Doing business in Colorado" is interpreted broadly. No office needed. No server needed. SaaS product with Colorado customers making covered decisions? You're a deployer. Selling an AI model that Colorado businesses use for covered decisions? Developer. Small deployers under 50 employees get a partial exemption, but the core reasonable care duty applies regardless of size. The legislature has tried twice to weaken this.