Illinois becomes first state to require third-party audits of frontier AI
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on July 6 signed the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act (Senate Bill 315), making Illinois the first state to require annual third-party audits of the largest AI developers. The law takes effect January 1, 2027.
It requires frontier AI companies to publish and annually update a plan for addressing catastrophic risks from their most powerful models, and — the provision without precedent in other state law — to undergo annual independent audits of those safety practices. Illinois becomes the third state to regulate frontier systems, after California and New York, but the first to mandate outside verification rather than relying on self-reported disclosures.
The measure passed with broad bipartisan margins, 110-0 in the House and 52-5 in the Senate, and drew support from both OpenAI and Anthropic. Backing from the largest developers suggests the audit requirement is seen as manageable, and a state-level mandate for independent review sets a template other states may follow in the absence of comparable federal rules.