Sen. Eric Berthel, a Watertown Republican, said the state needs to stay ahead of the curve in an emerging technology.

“A.I. is already important in some aspects of the delivery of health care,” Berthel said. “As AI moves across the world, we want to make sure that Connecticut remains on the cutting edge.”

The debate started at around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday and continued for more than four hours.

Duff said recently that lawmakers need to learn from the hands-off philosophy that Congress and others took with the internet in the 1990s because they were afraid that they would block the growth of an emerging technology. That initially included no sales tax on internet sales because members of Congress feared the tax would stifle commerce, but they did not fully foresee the future impact on brick-and-mortar retailers.

“Our job here is not to repeat the sins of the past,” Duff said. “Our job is to make sure that we are putting the necessary guidelines and guardrails (and) parameters around this technology now. … We shouldn’t be afraid to embrace this technology, but we also should not be afraid to put the rules of the road on there. I think that will actually help our state and help our country.”

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(Hartford Courant staff writer Alison Cross contributed to this report.)

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