A new Illinois law will establish safety, transparency, and accountability standards for some of the nation’s leading artificial intelligence companies.
Senate Bill 315, modeled after similar laws in California and New York, creates the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act. The law applies to large frontier AI developers and requires them to develop and publicly post a safety framework for their frontier AI models.
Under the new law, large frontier developers must submit regular summaries of catastrophic risk assessments involving their internal use of frontier AI models to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security (IEMA-OHS). Developers must also report critical safety incidents to IEMA-OHS and the Attorney General within 72 hours. If an incident poses an imminent risk of death or serious physical injury, it must be reported within 24 hours.
Beginning January 1, 2028, qualifying developers must also undergo annual independent third-party audits. The law includes standards to help ensure auditors have the proper expertise and are free from financial conflicts of interest.
The new law also requires developers to file disclosure statements with IEMA-OHS and allows the agency to publish a public list of compliant large frontier developers. Companies that fail to comply could face civil penalties of up to $1 million for a first violation and up to $3 million for subsequent violations.
The law is about ensuring that as AI technology continues to advance Illinois needs to have clear safeguards in place to protect the public.
The legislation was signed into law on July 6 and takes effect January 1, 2027.
Comments are closed