AI safety regulations advance in Springfield, despite industry concern
[May 27, 2026]
By Sean Reed | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A push to regulate artificial intelligence
products in Illinois has taken a major step toward becoming law. The
plan, which has broad support from industry leaders, would require
transparency and expanded safety measures from many AI companies.
Senate Bill 315, officially known as ‘The Artificial Intelligence Safety
Measures Act,’ would require AI companies such as OpenAI – sometimes
referred to as ‘frontier’ AI companies – to conduct and share findings
of annual third-party audits and disclose safety incidents to the state.
According to Rep. Daniel Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, who is carrying the
bill in the House, said the bill is nearly the same as measures passed
in New York and California.
Illinois-based regulations have previously been criticized, with
detractors saying they would contribute to a patchwork of laws that
could stifle innovation.
Didech said the measure specifically requires the biggest AI companies
to create and publish protocols on how their organizations will prevent
and manage harm as a result of their products.
“All frontier developers must report critical safety incidents to
[Illinois Emergency Management Agency] and the Attorney General within
72 hours of them occurring. And if an incident poses an imminent risk of
death or serious physical injury, they must also report to an
appropriate law enforcement or public safety agency,” Didech said
The lawmaker also said the bill includes measures to protect
whistleblowers in the event an employee seeks to come forward with
safety concerns.
Jeremy Kudon, the director of American Innovators Network, said while
the Illinois proposal is similar to the other states, the inclusion of
an additional provision requiring third-party audits is nowhere to be
seen in other states.
“There is no company in the United States that's actually accredited or
credentialed to audit AI generative models or frontier models,” Kudon
said.
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Scott Weiser from Secure A.I. Project said that there are ways to
audit the companies, and Didech said that the fact a number of the
companies in support shows they’re able and willing to work under
this proposal.
“There are a number of organizations that do the work which would be
involved in auditing and verification,” Weiser said. “There's two
categories. One is boutique specialist firms where all they do is
work on AI verification and evaluation. The other is the traditional
auditors, your Deloittes and KPMGs.”
Kudon further said he thinks the bill lacks clarity as to what an
audit will be based on, and he said he worries there could be
negative impacts for open-source models.
“True innovation is to take that open source model and go from there
and say ‘OK what can I do to make this even more effective?’ or make
certain tweaks that will be modeled towards the legal industry or
the medical industry. That's going to potentially go away,” Kudon
said.
OpenAI, which operates the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, supports
the measure, as do some of their biggest competitors, such as
Anthropic, which operates their own chatbot Claude.
“As AI systems become more powerful, clear rules around safety,
transparency, incident reporting, and accountability are
increasingly important. We believe the U.S. should ultimately have
national standards for frontier AI safety, but in the absence of
federal action, state efforts like this one in Illinois – alongside
legislation already in place in California and New York – are
helping to create a de facto nationwide approach,” Ann O'Leary,
OpenAI vice president of global policy said in a statement.
A number of other initiatives to regulate AI are teed-up to move in
coming days, and Illinois has the potential to lead the nation on
regulation of the technology, working with many industry leaders.
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