Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation Monday making the state the first in the country to require annual third-party safety audits of the nation’s largest artificial intelligence companies.
The law, known as the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act (S.B. 315), targets AI labs that generate more than $500 million in annual revenue. Those firms must now hire outside experts to evaluate their safety plans each year and submit the results to state regulators.
“As AI systems become more powerful and the federal government is unwilling to step in, states have a responsibility to protect our people from the dangers of AI,” Pritzker said.
The legislation passed the Illinois General Assembly earlier this year with bipartisan support. OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, creator of the Claude AI model, both endorsed the bill.
Under the law, covered companies must also create, publish, and annually update a framework addressing catastrophic risks, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and other safety concerns. Third-party evaluators must have no financial conflicts of interest with the firms they assess.
California and New York have enacted similar transparency requirements, but Illinois goes further by adding the mandatory external audit component.
Pritzker framed the move as filling a void left by Washington. Congress has not passed comprehensive AI legislation, leaving a growing patchwork of state laws that AI companies say creates compliance burdens. Several major labs have said they prefer a single national standard.
A bipartisan national AI framework was floated in the House last month. Partisan disagreements have slowed its progress.
“Illinois’s pairing of AI transparency requirements and external verification is an important step toward the accountability this technology demands,” said Cesar Fernandez, head of U.S. state and local government relations at Anthropic.
