Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on Monday signed into law a landmark artificial intelligence (AI) bill, cementing the state as a “national leader in setting guardrails for responsible innovation and growth.”

Senate Bill 315, or the AI Safety Measures Act, implements new safety regulations on AI companies developing frontier models, the most advanced and costliest AI models such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The act requires these companies to publish transparency frameworks that explain the company’s compliance with industry safety standards, the capabilities of the software and its potential to create “catastrophic risk,” and the company’s response to possible safety incidents any time that they deploy a new or substantially modified frontier model.

Most notably, the law mandates that these companies undergo annual audits of safety issues by independent third parties and for the results to be published. This requirement is the first of its kind to be implemented into any state mandated AI legislation.

The act also allows for the Illinois attorney general to impose civil penalties on companies that violate its provisions in the form of monetary fines of up to $1 million for the first violation and $3 million for subsequent violations, as well as lays out protections for whistleblowers and internal reporting schemes.

At a press conference on Monday, Pritzker emphasized that these regulations were not made to hinder the growth of AI, only to create more transparency for users, stating:

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 detriments onto ordinary people. Illinois has chosen our path. We want innovation with security.

Pritzker also criticized the federal government for their “lack of leadership” when it comes to regulating the AI field, alluding to the idea that its due to the administrations profit off of the industry.

Illinois joins states like California and New York that are implementing stricter regulations in lieu of national standards. In June 2025 New York passed the RAISE Act, a comprehensive piece of legislation that focuses on imposing regulations on AI models that cost more than $100 million or exceed certain computational power and preventing them from unleashing “critical harm.” Similarly, in September 2025 California enacted the Transparency in Frontier AI Act, which creates guardrails for the development of frontier AI models.

The use and development of AI has been both praised for its potential to further society and criticized for its effect in schools, bias and inaccuracy, and its environmental impact.

The state senate passed the bill in May. Illinois Senator Mary Edly-Allen, co-sponsor of the bill, echoed Pritzker’s sentiments at the conference, stating: “Illinois has always embraced innovation. The goal is accountability, the goal is transparency, and the goal is ensuring that as these technologies become more powerful, they are developed responsibly and safely.”