A bill that would have made Connecticut one of the first states in the nation to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) but failed to pass this year faces bipartisan opposition in the future.
During the Hartford Business Journal’s inaugural Politics & Policy Forum, which was held Tuesday morning with more than 100 people attending at the Society Room of Hartford and offered a recap of the 2025 legislative session, both House Speaker Matthew Ritter (D-Hartford) and Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding Jr. (R-Brookfield) stated they do not believe Connecticut should be the first state to pass such legislation.
Gov. Ned Lamont and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Daniel O’Keefe on Tuesday also expressed concerns about Connecticut attempting to be on the forefront of AI regulation.
“I always worry about Connecticut going about it on its own,” Ritter said. “Connecticut is a small state of 3.5 million people. We know what we’re good at. When we prop up where we want to be the first state to regulate AI, I just can’t get my arms around it.”
Senate Bill 2 was sponsored by Sen. James Maroney (D-Milford), who has established himself as the General Assembly’s expert on AI, negotiated a late-night deal to narrow the scope of the bill and get it approved in the Senate. The bill, however, never came up for a vote in the House before the session ended on June 4.
The revised bill was an effort to address concerns raised by Gov. Ned Lamont, who had previously raised concerns about the bill, fearing it would discourage businesses from locating or remaining in Connecticut.
Ritter said he asked Maroney during the session why Connecticut was going first on regulating AI. “Are we going to regulate the moon next?” Ritter quipped. “I joke, but it’s true. It’s just Connecticut. Imagine Connecticut being the only state that has certain AI regulations, and a business choosing (where to locate) is going to go, ‘Well, I can go a lot of places,’ right? So, I just can’t get there.”
Harding agreed, saying the bill tried to do too many things.
“I think there are smaller aspects of the bill that we can all agree upon that don’t seem overreaching, (criminalizing) revenge porn and things like that,” Harding said. “I think there are aspects of the bill that we probably all support on a bipartisan basis that are smaller steps, that are just logical.”
“But to the Speaker’s point,” he continued, “I think that I have trepidation, as the Governor has mentioned as well, in signing into law something that has overreaching impacts.”
Harding also said the state being among the first with such legislation would discourage businesses, adding that regulation is better left to the federal government.
Both legislative leaders said they doubt a comprehensive bill would have enough support to pass in the legislature in the future.
