The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday requiring frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to have their safety practices audited by a third party. If signed into law, AI safety experts tell WIRED, it would be the nation’s leading check on the power of major AI companies.

The bill, SB 315, now heads to governor JB Pritzker’s desk. In a post on social media on Wednesday, Pritzker said he plans to sign the bill, citing a need to hold Big Tech accountable.

Since Congress has yet to pass any meaningful AI safety legislation, state lawmakers have happily stepped up in recent years to promote bills that show their constituents they’re keeping Silicon Valley in check. As AI tools become increasingly popular, and the companies behind them race toward massive IPOs, polls show that American voters are looking for more AI regulation.

As a result, safety advocates and tech companies have zeroed in on state legislatures as the primary battleground to hash out how these laws should look. OpenAI’s chief of global affairs, Chris Lehane, told WIRED last week that the company’s AI policy is now oriented around passing a series of similar state laws.

California and New York have the strongest AI safety laws, requiring tech companies to provide information about model guardrails and to publish reports on safety incidents as they occur. Illinois’ bill goes a step further, requiring independent auditors to verify that an AI lab is adhering to its own safety standards. Previously, no independent body was required to keep an AI lab accountable to its own safety claims.

“We’re in a situation where the AI companies grade their own homework,” says Scott Wisor, policy director at Secure AI Project, a nonprofit that supports SB 315. “Should SB 315 become law, Illinois would require an independent auditor to check whether the AI labs in fact adhere to their safety commitments.”

Wisor says it’s broadly expected that, under SB 315, AI labs could use the Big Four accounting and auditing firms—Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC—to audit their safety practices. He also says it’s possible that AI labs could tap members of the AI Evaluator Forum—a coalition of smaller research organizations including METR, Transluce, and Averi—to assess adherence to safety standards.

Illinois state representative Daniel Didech, a sponsor of SB 315, tells WIRED that state legislatures are playing an important role by shaping America’s AI policy and acting as a testing ground for any federal laws that might come in the future. “Laws like this create a world where it’s more likely for the federal government to pass something,” Didech says.

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Illinois has emerged as a major arena in the ongoing fight over state AI laws. OpenAI previously supported a bill in Illinois that would let AI labs dodge liability if their models caused catastrophic harm. However, Lehane has since said the company’s blanket support for the bill was an oversight, and it never supported the liability shield in the bill. More recently, OpenAI endorsed SB 315.

“The Illinois General Assembly has shown real bipartisan leadership in advancing SB 315 and developing a thoughtful framework for frontier AI safety. As AI systems become more capable, clear expectations around safety, transparency, incident reporting, and accountability matter,” Lehane said in a statement to WIRED.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KFVS) – The Illinois General Assembly will be honoring U.S. Senator Dick Durbin at the State Capitol in Springfield on Wednesday, May 27.

Members of the Illinois House and Senate will meet in a rare joint session to salute Sen. Durbin’s nearly 44 years in Congress.

Governor JB Pritzker will also be attending.

During the joint session beginning at 12 p.m., Durbin will give a special address.

He is set to retire after his current term.

In April 2025, Durbin announced that he was not seeking re-election in 2026.

Durbin, a Democrat, was first elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5, 1996. He filled the seat left vacant after the retirement of U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

He also serves as the Senate Democratic Whip. He has been elected to that position every two years since 2005.

According to Durbin’s office, he’s the longest-serving senator in Illinois.

CHICAGO (WLS) — There are new questions on Tuesday about how taxpayers could be impacted by the so-called “mega-projects” bill.

Lawmakers this week are finalizing the bill, which would provide tax breaks for developers of big projects, including a new Bears stadium.

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Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas is hoping a new report will give lawmakers something to think about as they work on the bill that could determine if the Bears stay in Illinois or move across the border to Indiana.

The Bears’ campaign for a new domed stadium in Arlington Heights hinges on legislative support for a bill that would provide them with property tax certainty over the next 40 years.

“It’s a complicated situation, because it’s not finalized, and there are hundreds of unanswered questions in this, but the primary question is, ‘What happens to Joe Homeowner?’ And there’s no fiscal impact study here,” Pappas said.

So, researchers from Pappas’ office looked into what impact the “mega-projects” bill would have, asking the question: How will taxpayers benefit if there’s no expansion of the property tax base and only limited sales tax benefit?

Their report says the tax on the current undeveloped property in Arlington Heights was $3.6 million in 2024.

Under the “mega-projects” bill, the tax would be frozen at that level with annual increase based on inflation. It would be coupled with a special annual payment to local taxing bodies estimated to be around $10 million.

Based on the estimated value of a new stadium, the Bears would get an annual tax break of $39 million.

Pappas’ message to Springfield is, “Put the brakes on and say, ‘What’s the fiscal impact, and what does that mean?’ That means, how much is the homeowner going to have to pick up if somebody gets a billion-and-a-half tax break?”

Before the end of the legislative session on Sunday night, lawmakers are trying to balance helping the Bears and taxpayers to avoid the possibility that the team gives up on Arlington Heights and instead leaves Soldier Field for the offer from Indiana to build a stadium in Hammond, which is the only other site the team says it is considering.

“The real comparison is between a negotiated payment on a real development versus zero taxes on a vacant or stalled site. I wish someone would do a report on that, because that’s the real question for Illinois people, Illinois taxpayers, to have to answer,” said Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago.

The governor’s office reiterated on Tuesday that his goal is to pass something that encourages large developments and protects the taxpayers.

While the clock is ticking for lawmakers to revise and pass a megaprojects bill, in Springfield terms, there always seems to be enough time to get done the things that need to get done.