Musk and the US government fought an AI anti-discrimination law. The arguments don’t hold up | Genevieve Smith

Key points

• This April, the US Department of Justice joined Elon Musk’s xAI in suing the state of Colorado to kill its AI anti-discrimination law.
• When the federal government sides with a billionaire against a state trying to protect its residents from AI discrimination, that’s not only a Colorado story.
• That’s everyone’s story.
• The justice department’s lawsuit is part of a coordinated federal effort to reframe AI consumer protections as ideological overreach.
• In July 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order on “preventing woke AI”, equating bias mitigation measures to a leftist “woke” agenda that suppresses free speech and truth.