While it appeared that the special session would not impact CCJL, Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez introduced a bill on regulation of artificial intelligence – yet another attempt to “fix” the last-minute, poorly constructed, “first in the nation” AI regulation that he sponsored in 2024.

Sen. Rodriguez’s SB 4 would create joint and several liability to apply to developers of artificial intelligence products, thereby allowing trial lawyers to sue the company that developed a platform – or algorithm – but which had no control over how that platform would be applied by those who purchased it.  It would be akin to making Microsoft liable for damages if someone used their MS Word platform to write something libelous or used Excel to commit a white-collar crime.

All of this came to light late Friday and on Saturday.  Due to our obvious opposition to any creation of joint and several liability, CCJL instructed its lobbying team to take an AMEND position, specifically to oppose the joint and several liability provision.  Sen. Rodriguez then used his power as majority leader to completely re-constitute the Appropriations Committee to be sure his legislation would pass out of committee.

Ultimately, however, the bill was stripped of all substantive changes and amended to merely extend the implementation date of the 2024 bill from Feb. 1, 2026, to June 30, 2026, thus allowing the legislature to give the topic more thorough evaluation in its next regular session.