Illinois Requires Third-Party AI Audits

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# A first-of-its-kind AI law is coming to Illinois soon as concerns rise across the US

## A new suite of bills regulating artificial intelligence will take effect in Illinois on New Year's Day

#### By [Rose Schmidt](https://www.nbcchicago.com/author/rose-schmidt/) • •

NBC Universal, Inc.

Large AI companies will be required to establish safety standards and be more transparent as part of a Illinois law that takes effect in January amid ongoing debates at the federal level. Rose Schmidt has more details.

Large AI companies will be required to establish safety standards and be more transparent as part of a Illinois law that takes effect in January amid ongoing debates at the federal level.

In June, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act, which will make Illinois the first state to require third-party audits of AI systems. Companies that violate the law could be fined $1 million the first time and up to $3 million for each subsequent violation, according to the text of the bill.

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"Illinois has been a leader in regulations of technology," said Daniel Linna, a professor of instruction in Law and Computer Science at Northwestern University.

The law also has provisions that mirror legislation in California and New York. It puts a regulatory framework in place for large AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which supported the bill. Companies will be required to publicly disclose safety practices and report safety incidents.

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. There are also new protections for whistleblower employees who raise concerns about AI safety.

The lawmakers who crafted the law, State Rep. Daniel Didech and Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, released a joint statement this month with lawmakers from New York and California demanding that AI companies slow down their pace of development. They called on the tech companies to immediately establish a Mutually Agreed Pacing Framework, or MAP Framework, that is jointly negotiated and independently verifiable by third parties.

"...We believe that the frontier labs must engage with the seriousness of purpose that this moment demands. Given the urgency, we call on them to work together to eliminate the risk that a catastrophe will result from their rush to build highly capable AI systems before solving problems of alignment and safety," the statement read in part.

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Didech told NBC 5 Chicago he believes Congress should act immediately. He said priorities at the state and federal levels should include limits on systems that "surpass human reasoning capabilities," along with increased transparency and audits, treating cybersecurity breaches as "critical safety incidents" and putting independent monitors in place to make sure rules are being followed.

"There is an urgent need for strong federal regulation and international cooperation to ensure that artificial intelligence is developed and deployed responsibly," Didech said.

As for whether Didech will push for more regulation in the veto session in November and December, he said he is waiting to see what Congress does this fall.

One gap Linna said he sees is Illinois does not have a comprehensive data privacy law like a handful of other states have. He said policymakers also need to consider the benefits of AI as they craft legislation.

"As a lawyer, AI is coming into the judiciary, and it has the potential to improve access to law, access to justice. I think it's very important that we think about the risks, but we are ignoring the benefits, and we need to get policymakers thinking about how ... there's so much potential for AI to improve everything: medicine, law," Linna said.

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