Birju Shah: Requiring AI audits makes sense. But Illinois legislators got the order of things wrong.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has signed SB315, making Illinois the first state to require large artificial intelligence developers to hire a third party to conduct annual safety audits. The law applies to AI companies that meet certain thresholds, obligating them to submit to independent assessments of their systems' safety practices.

Shah contends that technical standards for AI safety should be established before requiring audits, as auditors currently lack clear criteria against which to evaluate companies. Without agreed-upon benchmarks, the audits may produce inconsistent and potentially meaningless results, according to Shah.

Shah acknowledges that the intention behind SB315—to ensure accountability for AI development—is reasonable, but asserts that the order of operations undermines the law's effectiveness. The piece suggests that Illinois legislators would have better served the public by first developing technical standards through a consultative process before imposing audit requirements.