Justice Department Intervenes in xAI lawsuit Challenging Colorado’s ‘Algorithmic Discrimination’ Law

The Justice Department moved to intervene in a lawsuit filed by artificial intelligence company xAI, challenging a new Colorado law that prohibits so-called “algorithmic discrimination.” The Justice Department alleges that the Colorado law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by requiring AI companies to prevent unintentional disparate impact that their products could have based on protected characteristics like race and sex, and by exempting liability for certain forms of discrimination designed to advance “diversity.”

“Laws that require AI companies to infect their products with woke DEI ideology are illegal,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will not stand on the sidelines while states such as Colorado coerce our nation’s technological innovators into producing harmful products that advance a radical, far left worldview at odds with the Constitution.”

“America’s success in the AI race will depend on removing barriers to innovation and adoption across sectors,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Laws like Colorado’s that force AI models to produce false results or promote ideological bias threaten national and economic security and must be stopped.”

The statute, Colorado SB24-205, requires AI “developers” and “deployers” to satisfy certain disclosure, reporting, and prevention requirements when creating algorithm products designed for services like mortgage lending, student admissions, and job-candidate selection. But the statute has an explicit carveout for discriminatory algorithms designed to advance “diversity” or “redress historic discrimination.” AI company xAI filed a lawsuit challenging the statute on April 9.

You can view the lawsuit here.