Illinois Becomes First State to Mandate Third-Party Audit of AI Models

Well, good morning, everyone. I'm very, very glad to be here with you today to enact the strongest artificial intelligence safety and accountability bill in the entire nation. Alongside advocates and partners from the General Assembly, we are establishing Illinois as a national leader in setting guardrails for responsible innovation and growth in AI and in protecting the people of our state. And I want to express my gratitude to those who have helped to lead this charge, including, of course, my friends in the Illinois General Assembly, with special thanks to Speaker Chris Welch, Senator Mary Edley Allen, Representative Daniel Didich, each of whom was responsible for spearheading this legislation, and strong advocates who brought expertise and experience with artificial intelligence to this work. Secure AI, Encode AI, and the Transparency Coalition. AI is the most significant technological innovation and development of the modern age. When managed properly, it can foster tremendous growth, productivity, and innovation across the economy and vastly improve our quality of life. But with that transformative potential comes catastrophic risk, much of which isn't fully understood yet. Unfortunately, we've seen a glaring but not unsurprising lack of leadership and foresight from our own federal government and a mindless rush to riches among private sector tech leaders. That has fueled a race to the bottom marked by a lack of protection for private personal information, the potential for harmful model behavior, and unintended algorithm jailbreaks. Those are serious threats to the public interest and to the future of the industry. So where the federal government has been unwilling to step up, states must venture once more unto the breach. We must protect our people from the dangers of AI while still harnessing the unique potential of the technology. And we're doing it in Illinois with a bipartisan first and most protective in the nation law. As AI systems become more powerful and more influential, companies and the government have a responsibility to anticipate, manage, and transparently communicate the risks that they create. Rather than sitting back and waiting for those to emerge, our legislation proactively seeks to find risk, to embed safety and accountability into the industry, and to promote public trust, all at the frontier of AI rather than at the tipping point. We are requiring large AI companies to develop risk mitigation frameworks and undergo mandatory annual independent third-party audits, a first for any state AI legislation. Developers must report critical safety incidents within 72 hours or within 24 hours if the incident poses an imminent risk of death or serious physical harm. We're requiring the largest AI companies to publicly explain the risks that their systems could pose, as well as the measures that they're taking to mitigate those risks. The law provides clear protections for whistleblowers and creates confidential channels for employees to report safety risks. There is a reason that this legislation earned overwhelming and bipartisan support in the General Assembly and has widespread public support. Even some in the AI industry are on board with it. People want protection from the risks of AI and companies want the regulatory certainty to continue developing the technology. The Congress and the President ought to be passing similar legislation, but they've so far been unwilling because many are captive to special interests that profit from the industry having no regulation. Look, this is not about punishing businesses or stifling the potential of this technology, quite the opposite. It's simply about addressing some of the dangers that AI can pose. Indeed, the United States must be a world leader so we don't allow our adversaries to gain unmitigated advantage, either economically or militarily. History has shown time and again that thoughtful regulation is a requirement for sustainable innovation when our economic and national security is at stake. At the dawn of this technological revolution, we face a choice. We can work together to establish thoughtful guardrails in ways that benefit both industry and the public, or we can allow a handful of actors to evade accountability and push the costs and detriment onto ordinary people. Illinois has chosen our path. We want innovation with security. We've taken a big first step toward the most robust artificial intelligence safety frameworks in the nation, placing us at the vanguard of demanding transparency and accountability. There will be more to do on this front as this new technology becomes even more widely used, and Illinois will continue to play a leadership role in it.