In one paragraph
Illinois's SB 3261, the Artificial Intelligence Public Safety and Child Protection Transparency Act, would require large frontier developers (models trained with over 10^26 operations; $500 million revenue) and large chatbot providers ($25 million revenue; 1,000,000+ monthly users, likely accessed by minors) to publish safety plans, and frontier developers and large chatbot providers to report safety incidents to the Attorney General. Civil penalties up to $1,000,000 (large developers) or $50,000 (chatbot providers) per violation. Introduced February 3, 2026; re-referred to Assignments May 22, 2026 under Rule 3-9(a); not passed. Would take effect January 1, 2027.
Plain-English summary, written with AI assistance. The official text controls.
What it means for business
None yet: the bill has not been enacted. If enacted, the largest AI model developers and large consumer chatbot providers would have to publish safety plans, report incidents to the Attorney General, and face civil penalties.
Key provisions
- Large frontier developers and large chatbot providers would have to publish a public safety and child protection plan, and publish a modified plan within 30 days of a material modification
- Large frontier developers would have to publish summaries of catastrophic-risk assessments when deploying a new or substantially modified frontier model, and could not use or deploy a model posing unreasonable catastrophic risk
- Frontier developers would have to report critical safety incidents to the Attorney General within 15 days (24 hours to an appropriate authority if imminent risk of death or serious injury); large chatbot providers, child safety incidents within 15 days
- Large frontier developers would have to retain a third-party auditor annually, give employees an anonymous disclosure process, and send the Attorney General quarterly summaries of internal-use risk assessments
- Civil penalty of up to $1,000,000 per violation for a large frontier developer and up to $50,000 per violation for a large chatbot provider, recovered in an Attorney General action
- Status: re-referred to Assignments May 22, 2026 (Rule 3-9(a)); not passed by either chamber; as introduced it would take effect January 1, 2027
Latest legislative action
May 22, 2026. Rule 3-9(a) / Re-referred to Assignments
Sponsors (showing 5 of 12)
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Mary Edly-Allen | Primary |
| Adriane L. Johnson | Cosponsor |
| Doris Turner | Cosponsor |
| Graciela Guzmán | Cosponsor |
| Laura Ellman | Cosponsor |
Topics and industries
Related topics
Affected industries
This page is general information, not legal advice. Summaries are AI-assisted and may contain errors; read the statute for the controlling text and talk to a lawyer about your situation. Full disclaimer · Report an error