“Is this bill still a work in progress?” Seminara asked on the Senate floor. “Is this being hastily done?”

Sen. Tony Hwang, a Fairfield Republican who served on the 21-member task force that issued a 255-page report, said powerful computers are already having an impact on Americans’ lives. AI will be involved in “potentially how we shop … potentially who we get our news from” in daily life, he said.

“It’s not a movie. It’s real,” Hwang told his Senate colleagues. “It’s on the tip of everybody’s mind. … I’m inclined to just take a step back — to reduce the complexity. Simplifying this process would allow us to create better policy. … AI is everywhere around us. It’s undeniable. … I’m trying to understand this better. … Why the rush?”

Lawmakers focused on regulating “high-risk AI systems,” which covers any system that makes an important decision about someone’s life.

“If we get it wrong in a technology field that is moving at remarkable speed … for many businesses, it’s life or death,” Hwang said. “They may leave the state or they may do the wrong thing and lose their business. … The technology changes minute by minute, not day by day. This technology is changing so fast. Are we catching the tail end?”

He added that it is “dangerous” to give too much power on the issue to the state attorney general, which is an elected position every four years.

Senate Republican leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield said he believes that Senate Bill 2 will prove to be the most complex of the 2024 legislative session.

“AI is changing second to second, minute to minute,” said Harding, who voted against the bill. “This is going to be ongoing. … I fear this legislation is full of unintended consequences. … We are the first state that has ever done this.”

Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat, said that many bills are tweaks from legislation in prior years, but AI was a first-time issue in Connecticut.

“Other states will be looking to what we do here tonight,” Looney said before the chamber voted.

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