Illinois lawmakers pass landmark AI accountability bill
[May 28, 2026]
By Jenna Schweikert and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR)
Following in the footsteps of New York and California, Illinois state
lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that seeks to increase transparency
and accountability among the largest and most capable artificial
intelligence models.
Senate Bill 315 passed unanimously in the House with Wednesday and now
heads to the governor for consideration.
Legislators modeled the bill after 2025 laws in New York and California,
hoping to further a national standard they say is lacking at the federal
level.
“This legislation enacts critical protections against the most
catastrophic risks that advanced AI systems pose to public safety,”
House sponsor Rep. Daniel Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, said. “Artificial
intelligence is among the most significant technological developments of
modern time. It has the potential to drastically improve the quality of
life of people throughout the world, but only if deployed and developed
responsibly.”
SB315 is targeted towards the most capable models developed by the
largest companies through its thresholds — $500 million in revenue and a
massive computing measurement. OpenAI and Anthropic both supported the
bill throughout its process and it passed the House 110-0.
“As these models grow more powerful, this kind of enforceable
accountability matters more than ever,” Cesar Fernandez, Anthropic’s
head of U.S., state and local government relations said in a statement
Wednesday. “Illinois lawmakers have set a new standard, and we hope
other states and the federal government build on their dedication to AI
safety.”
Senate sponsor Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, D-Libertyville, compared the
technology to the “wild, wild West,” and said lawmakers can’t take the
same approach they did with social media, an approach that was minimal
until recently.
“This is not about stopping innovation, but rather about balancing the
great promise of AI with its potential harms,” Edly-Allen said while
introducing the bill in committee on May 13.
In a 52-5 vote, state senators approved the bill last week.
The bill would require developers to create and publish a transparency
framework explaining how the company applies industry standards,
measures model capabilities and chance of catastrophic risk, and
identifies and responds to safety incidents.
Developers would also be required to employ third-party auditors to
ensure compliance with the framework, a provision that is still a point
of contention for some industry stakeholders, including TechNet, a
coalition of tech executives across the industry.
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Rep. Daniel Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, speaks on the House floor May
27. His bill would make Illinois the third state to regulate
frontier AI models. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jenna Schweikert)
“We remain concerned that Illinois would effectively be requiring
private actors to make highly subjective determinations requiring AI
safety compliance without established national standards,
certifications, or clear regulatory guardrails,” TechNet representative
Ninia Linero said in committee May 20.
Advocates like Secure AI, a nonprofit seeking meaningful AI regulations,
supported the third-party requirement.
Didech said he had conversations with House legal staff and the AI
working group of lawmakers conducted research to see if there are
companies that can effectively conduct those audits.
“Given … the fact that there is already a developing robust ecosystem of
these small boutique firms, and also the large international accounting
firms that have the capabilities to perform these audits, we were
comfortable keeping it in the bill,” Didech said.
Later amendments also addressed concerns from Senate Republicans, Secure
AI, Anthropic and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency by clarifying
third party qualifications, what the audit should include and protocols
for protecting proprietary information. Lawmakers also extended the
effective date from 2027 to 2028 and added an amendment saying the bill
doesn’t create a pathway for private citizens to sue.
The Illinois attorney general would have exclusive authority to enforce
civil penalties up to $3 million per violation.
Amendments also require large frontier developers to file disclosure
statements with primary contacts and places of business and to pay
proportional fees to cover the expense of administering the act.
The bill now heads to Gov. JB Pritzker, who said he looks forward to
signing it in a post he made on social media Wednesday evening.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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