(VitalNews.org) – Connecticut lawmakers began the legislative season with hopes that they’d be able to pass one of the first major bills that would rein in bias in artificial intelligence. However, hopes for the bill were dashed after a veto threat from democratic Governor Ned Lamont, who said they were concerned that the legislation might “stifle innovation” and make Connecticut an outlier.
Democratic Senator James Maroney has been working on the issue for about two years with lawmakers across the U.S. Maroney said, “It’s disappointing Connecticut is losing its chance to lead in the AI space.”
Several bills were proposed during this time with the AI bill, but they all failed after the General Assembly met its deadline. With this, some positives came out of it.
The legislation cleared that the General Assembly made numerous nursing home reforms, like preventing them from placing new residents in rooms with more than two beds.
The Senate also looked into the proliferation of infused beverages being sold in convenience stores. They also voted to prohibit synthetic cannabinoids in cannabis and forbade them from being sold at licensed cannabis stores.
Republican Senator Rob Sampson spoke out about the bill by saying, “I don’t believe that it goes far enough.” He spoke about what happened in Bridgeport, a “fiasco” that warranted a strong action.
Many of the concepts brought up by legislation were not taken and failed, but some were approved such as the plan to spend over three hundred million dollars in remaining pandemic funds.
Republicans were against reopening the pandemic budget for this reason. “When we agreed not to open the budget and did not do a budget, that limited your options,” House Speaker Matt Ritter said.
Said Vincent Candelora, the House Minority Leader, “The Democrats didn’t do their job on the budget and they’ve left the hard decisions up to the governor.”
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