EveryAILaw.comDoes Colorado Conversational AI Service Operator Requirements (HB 26-1263) require Transparency & Disclosure?
Colorado • enacted
Yes — 2 provisions
Requirements at a glance
This regulation imposes 12 specific requirements for Transparency & Disclosure across 2 provisions:
- Artificiality disclosure — Clearly and conspicuously disclose to the minor account holder or minor user that they are interacting with artificial intelligence that is artificially generated and not human (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a))
- Prompt-responsive delivery — The disclosure must be provided in response to user prompts regarding whether the service is artificially generated and not human (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a))
- Screen products — A persistent visible disclaimer for a product with a screen interface (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)(I))
- Screenless products — An intermittent audio disclaimer for a product without a screen interface (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)(II))
- Cadence — Provided at the beginning of each interaction and at least once every three hours in a continuous interaction (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)(III))
- Artificiality disclosure — Clearly and conspicuously disclose to a user that the conversational AI service is artificial intelligence (§ 6-1-1708(3))
- Daily first-interaction timing — Provide the disclosure at the beginning of a user's first interaction with the service for each day of interaction (§ 6-1-1708(3)(a))
- Three-hour or persistent cadence — The disclosure must appear at least once every three hours in a continuous interaction, or appear as a persistent disclosure visible to the user (§ 6-1-1708(3)(b))
- Prompt-responsive delivery — The disclosure must be provided in response to user prompts regarding whether the service is artificially generated and not human (§ 6-1-1708(3)(c))
- No professional-equivalence claims — Do not use any term, letter, or phrase in advertising, the interface, or outputs stating that output data is provided by, endorsed by, or equivalent to services provided by a licensed health-care professional, a licensed legal professional, or a licensed, certified, or registered mental health professional (§ 6-1-1708(5)(a)-(c))
- Dietitian claims — The same bar covers claims of equivalence to a qualified dietitian as described in § 6-1-707(1)(b) (§ 6-1-1708(5)(d))
- Savings clauses — Nothing in the section limits constitutional information access, requires disclosure of trade secrets or protected confidential information, or authorizes content moderation inconsistent with the United States Constitution (§ 6-1-1708(7)(a)-(c))
Minor Artificiality Disclosure and Cadence
The disclosure duty is written as prompt-responsive first — it "must be provided in response to user prompts regarding whether the service is artificially generated and not human" — and then specifies the delivery form by product type: a persistent visible disclaimer on screen products, an intermittent audio disclaimer on screenless products, or beginning-of-interaction plus a three-hour cadence. Colorado gives minors the same three-hour interval as adults, unlike Washington ESHB 2225, which drops the minor cadence to one hour.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Artificiality disclosure | Clearly and conspicuously disclose to the minor account holder or minor user that they are interacting with artificial intelligence that is artificially generated and not human (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)) |
| Prompt-responsive delivery | The disclosure must be provided in response to user prompts regarding whether the service is artificially generated and not human (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)) |
| Screen products | A persistent visible disclaimer for a product with a screen interface (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)(I)) |
| Screenless products | An intermittent audio disclaimer for a product without a screen interface (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)(II)) |
| Cadence | Provided at the beginning of each interaction and at least once every three hours in a continuous interaction (§ 6-1-1708(2)(a)(III)) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Enforcement route | Current § 6-1-1706 assigns Part 17 enforcement exclusively to the Attorney General; from 2027-01-01, § 6-1-1706(1)-(2) directs Attorney General enforcement through the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. Application of the future developer/deployer cure wording to an operator is unresolved. |
| Civil penalty | HB 26-1263 sets no separate dollar figure. The general CCPA ceiling under § 6-1-112(1)(a) is up to USD 20,000 per violation, separately per consumer or transaction, in an Attorney General civil action. Future § 6-1-1706(3) has a 60-day cure notice when the Attorney General deems cure possible for a developer or deployer, subject to its knowing/repeated-violation exception; application to a distinct operator remains unresolved. |
| Private right of action | Part 17 creates no new private right of action; future § 6-1-1706(4) preserves existing state and federal rights and remedies. |
General Consumer Disclosure and Licensed-Professional Representation Bar
The general disclosure is unconditional — there is no reasonable-person trigger, so a plainly artificial service still discloses. Colorado's daily-reset cadence is distinctive: the disclosure is owed at the beginning of the user's first interaction for each day of interaction, then either every three hours in a continuous interaction or as a persistent visible disclosure. The false-representation bar at § 6-1-1708(5) covers four named professions — licensed health-care professionals, licensed legal professionals, licensed, certified, or registered mental health professionals, and qualified dietitians as described in § 6-1-707(1)(b) — and reaches advertising and interface copy as well as model outputs. Section 6-1-1708(7) preserves constitutional information access, does not require disclosure of trade secrets or confidential information, and does not authorize content moderation inconsistent with the United States Constitution.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Artificiality disclosure | Clearly and conspicuously disclose to a user that the conversational AI service is artificial intelligence (§ 6-1-1708(3)) |
| Daily first-interaction timing | Provide the disclosure at the beginning of a user's first interaction with the service for each day of interaction (§ 6-1-1708(3)(a)) |
| Three-hour or persistent cadence | The disclosure must appear at least once every three hours in a continuous interaction, or appear as a persistent disclosure visible to the user (§ 6-1-1708(3)(b)) |
| Prompt-responsive delivery | The disclosure must be provided in response to user prompts regarding whether the service is artificially generated and not human (§ 6-1-1708(3)(c)) |
| No professional-equivalence claims | Do not use any term, letter, or phrase in advertising, the interface, or outputs stating that output data is provided by, endorsed by, or equivalent to services provided by a licensed health-care professional, a licensed legal professional, or a licensed, certified, or registered mental health professional (§ 6-1-1708(5)(a)-(c)) |
| Dietitian claims | The same bar covers claims of equivalence to a qualified dietitian as described in § 6-1-707(1)(b) (§ 6-1-1708(5)(d)) |
| Savings clauses | Nothing in the section limits constitutional information access, requires disclosure of trade secrets or protected confidential information, or authorizes content moderation inconsistent with the United States Constitution (§ 6-1-1708(7)(a)-(c)) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Enforcement route | Current § 6-1-1706 assigns Part 17 enforcement exclusively to the Attorney General; from 2027-01-01, § 6-1-1706(1)-(2) directs Attorney General enforcement through the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. Application of the future developer/deployer cure wording to an operator is unresolved. |
| Civil penalty | HB 26-1263 sets no separate dollar figure. The general CCPA ceiling under § 6-1-112(1)(a) is up to USD 20,000 per violation, separately per consumer or transaction, in an Attorney General civil action. Future § 6-1-1706(3) has a 60-day cure notice when the Attorney General deems cure possible for a developer or deployer, subject to its knowing/repeated-violation exception; application to a distinct operator remains unresolved. |
| Private right of action | Part 17 creates no new private right of action; future § 6-1-1706(4) preserves existing state and federal rights and remedies. |