Connecticut lawmakers have finally found comprehensive artificial intelligence legislation that they can live with, as the House of Representatives gave final passage to Senate Bill 5 on Friday, sending it to the desk of Gov. Ned Lamont.
The House voted 131-17 in favor of the legislation. The bill had bipartisan support in both the House and in the Senate, where it passed with a 32-4 majority after extensive debate.
Legislators discussed the bill over the course of three hours Friday afternoon, with many lawmakers rising to ask questions about how the legislation would affect businesses, children and teens, as well as how it could possibly regulate a technology that’s rapidly changing.
“There is no longer doubt that the nature of work, the nature of life, is going to change rapidly with the continued evolution of AI,” said Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, co-chair of the General Law Committee, as debate of the bill began. “This is about protecting people without stopping that innovation.”
But where the Senate discussion largely focused on the bill’s effects on businesses, much of the House debate focused instead on the urgent need to regulate AI.
“The time has come,” said Rep. David Rutigliano, R-Trumbull. “This isn’t overbearing, we’re not stifling innovation, we’re not doing anything to stifle economic development.”
“What we’re saying is that we need to start parameters around some of these AI vehicles and AI programs,” he added.
Determining the best way to regulate artificial intelligence has been a contentious issue in Connecticut for years, with lawmakers and governor divided on the best way to deal with a technology that is changing faster than regulations can keep up. Last year’s effort to pass regulation cleared the Senate after a last-minute deal, but fell apart after a veto threat from Lamont, who has long worried that too much regulation could hurt businesses and hamper innovation in the state.
This session, after years of efforts to pass legislation — and as questions around AI use, intellectual property, and privacy rights become more pressing — legislators were determined to pass a bill. And with a deal between Lamont and S.B. 5’s lead author, Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, that bill is now heading to the governor’s desk.
A spokesperson for Lamont said Friday that he plans to sign it.
“Governor Lamont made it a priority this session to fight for protections for Connecticut residents — especially children — from serious threats posed by emerging technology,” Lamont spokesperson Cathryn Vaulman said in a statement. “Parents should be in control of aspects of social media and AI that carry real risks for children’s mental health. Workers should be able to benefit from greater efficiency on the job without fearing discrimination or displacement by AI.”
Vaulman called the the bill’s provisions “commonsense protections that reflect our values as a state,” adding, “the Governor looks forward to signing SB 5 into law.”
Once he does, Connecticut would join a growing number of states that has moved to adopt regulations as AI technology expands. The Trump administration has attempted to dissuade states from doing so, arguing that the federal government should instead adopt a national policy that creates a single consistent standard.
After several attempts, a more targeted approach gets to the finish line
S.B. 5, which was amended to include provisions from several other A.I. proposals, covers a range of regulations from employment-related decision-making to AI-related tasks and programs within state agencies.
Rebranded as the Connecticut Artificial Intelligence Responsibility and Transparency Act on Friday, the bill also includes efforts to expand awareness of and involvement in AI-based workforce development in the state. That includes promoting the Connecticut AI Academy among the parents and guardians of state baby bond recipients and unemployed workers, offering AI education support for small businesses and expanding AI literacy programs for teachers and state workforce programs.
Previous versions of the bill were replaced with a strike-all amendment introduced by Maroney last week. And much like last week in the Senate, the opening hour of Friday’s debate in the House took place between members of the General Law Committee, with Rep. Gary Turco, D-Newington and Rutigliano discussing the bill during a lengthy question-and-answer.
The bill was then opened up to broader discussion.
Last week in the Senate, that pivot was when lawmakers launched into hours of debate over regulation, questions around if Connecticut should be wading into AI policy and anxieties over the impact of regulation on businesses and state innovation efforts.
But opposition was somewhat muted in the House on Friday. Several members of the House Republican caucus rose to support the bill, saying that many of their worries about the impact of the legislation on small businesses had been addressed.
Some legislators argued that the nation had reached a crisis point where artificial intelligence regulation is desperately needed.
“I cannot vote no and hope that ignoring AI and social media is going to make the state of Connecticut any better,” said Rep. Christie Carpino, R-Cromwell. “It’s not going to protect our residents if I vote ‘No,’ it’s not going to help our businesses move ahead.”
“I don’t want to wait for the federal government. I don’t want to wait for the state government. I don’t want to wait for regulators, and I don’t want to wait for the free market,” said Rep. Joe Hoxha, R-Bristol. “This is way too important for the youth of this country, of our state, for the youth in all our districts, for the next generation.”
Still, some raised concerns about overreach. “We want innovation here,” said Rep. Tina Courpas, R-Greenwich. “We want companies to develop here, and we want to be able to compete against other states.”
Other lawmakers argued that while the law — particularly its focus on regulating the social media use and AI chatbot interactions of minors — may be the result of good intentions, it would be difficult for the state to get its arms around technology that is changing so quickly.
“It feels more like theater that we’re trying to do something for these kids,” said Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-New Milford. “There’s really not a whole lot we can do with trying to regulate the Internet.”
Buckbee added that he’d used AI to generate the questions he asked during Friday’s House session.
A deal years in the making
A series of changes this session cleared the path for S.B. 5’s passage this time around.
In the first days of the session, Maroney held a joint press conference with Attorney General William Tong, who quickly threw his support behind many of the concepts outlined in S.B. 5 and Senate Bill 4, a companion bill that addresses consumer data privacy protections.
On Friday, the attorney general’s office praised the bill’s passage. “Artificial intelligence is exploding everywhere, with potential for good intertwined with severe risks,” Tong said in a statement. “Neither state nor federal law has kept pace with these developments, and today’s vote is an important first step towards protecting Connecticut families.”
S.B. 5 also contained considerable overlap with bills that were requested by the governor this session. The bill was amended to include parts from both Senate Bill 86 and House Bill 5037, adding in provisions around a state-managed “regulatory sandbox” that would allow companies to test new technologies and products, as well as governor-supported regulations around youth social media use and interactions with AI chatbots.
Those amendments indicated that the governor was now willing to tie the fate of his legislation to Maroney’s long-sought AI regulations. And with that agreement in place, the House, which declined to vote on AI regulations last year, was willing to finally bring a comprehensive AI bill to the floor for a vote.
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas told reporters on Friday that S.B. 5 was a priority. Its companion bill on consumer data privacy, S.B. 4, is expected to come up for a vote as well.
