By Peyton Hornberger
Artificial intelligence has quickly become the sleeper issue of the 2026 midterms. From checks and balances on AI surveillance to data center opposition, Americans are increasingly wary of advanced AI risks, revealing deep skepticism about Silicon Valley that cuts across party lines.
Pro-Trump or anti-Trump, Americans are desperately awaiting action from their elected officials on AI accountability, holding the world’s most powerful technology accountable to the people. Big Tech is laying it on heavy with untold hundreds of millions of dollars on pro-AI advocacy, supporting industry allies in government and opposing those who dare to speak out. Frontier AI labs and other technology companies are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per day to lobby Congress alone.
That is the bad news. The good news: U.S. states, the most important laboratories of democracy, are rejecting Big Tech politics and listening to the people. And Illinois — my beloved Land of Lincoln — is taking the lead.
Illinois lawmakers recently passed a landmark AI accountability bill, Senate Bill 315, which aims to increase transparency so that the largest AI companies accurately report on their models’ capabilities. Following California and New York in AI legislation, SB 315 boasts the most robust framework without being restrictive. It is just common sense, requiring AI developers to create and publish a transparency framework explaining how the company applies industry standards, measures model capabilities and addresses safety incidents.
The law also brings third-party auditors into the fold, ensuring Silicon Valley’s compliance with its framework. This regulatory standard would be the first of its kind, going even further than the legislative models in California and New York.
With greater transparency, people in Illinois would have a much clearer picture of advanced AI’s capabilities and threats, including the chance of catastrophic risk that could threaten countless millions of people — from systemic hacking to rampant job loss and even loss of life. To quote Senate sponsor Mary Edly-Allen, AI development cannot be the “Wild West” when we don’t even have a strong sense of AI’s transformative power in the first place.
Two things can be true at once. Americans can support the free market, as I do, while also believing in safeguards for potentially dangerous AI systems. Free-market innovators in Silicon Valley can and should still innovate for the greater good of society while respecting proper guardrails that match the magnitude of the moment. Catastrophic AI risk has long been established as a legitimate consideration by the world’s leading experts, and it only makes sense for us to tread carefully.
Hopefully, Illinois can inspire other states to follow suit, and perhaps even set the stage for a federal standard on AI safeguards. Rather than pursuing the preemption of state AI laws, legislators in Washington, D.C., need to see what works (or doesn’t) in the laboratories of democracy, modeling reforms based on actual evidence from Illinois, Connecticut and other states. Faced with Big Tech’s persistent lobbying efforts, Congress isn’t wading into the AI debate blindly; we have numerous examples of state and local lawmakers showing their federal counterparts how to take action.
What matters next is willpower. We are seeing local governments in Michigan and Minnesota question the “Wild West” approach to AI development, showing that even local municipalities can stand up to the might of Silicon Valley CEOs and their allies in the White House or Congress.
That’s what the people want. Most Americans — Democrat, Republican or independent — overwhelmingly support AI safeguards because they are deeply concerned about AI’s potential harms. Strong bipartisan consensus shows that inaction is unacceptable.
On AI accountability, Illinois lawmakers did the right thing, and they will be rewarded by their constituents. For AI to serve humanity and not vice versa, the rest of America has to learn the lesson from the Land of Lincoln.