Connecticut Passes SB5 — America's Most Comprehensive State AI Law

What Passed

Connecticut's legislature passed the AI Responsibility and Transparency Act (SB5) — House 131-17, Senate 32-4. Governor Ned Lamont is expected to sign. Most provisions take effect October 1, 2026.

Key Requirements

Provenance metadata: Generative AI providers with 1M+ monthly users must embed machine-readable provenance data in all AI-generated audio, images, and video

Whistleblower protection: Frontier model developers training on more than 10²⁶ computing operations must protect employees who report catastrophic risk concerns

Employment AI: Transparency requirements for employers using AI in hiring and promotion

AI companions: Disclosure obligations for AI emotional companion services

Significance

With no comprehensive federal AI law in force, SB5 is among the broadest state-level AI statutes in the US. The 1M-user threshold for provenance requirements is lower than prior proposals, capturing a wide range of consumer-facing generative AI products. The 10²⁶ FLOP whistleblower threshold mirrors the compute levels used in frontier foundation model training in 2025–2026.

Source: CT Mirror