AI Frontier Institute

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Illinois SB0316, the Artificial Intelligence Companion Model Safety Act (Section 1), establishes safety requirements for operators of AI companion products—defined in Section 5 as AI systems using emotional recognition algorithms to simulate sustained human-like relationships with users. The Act applies to operators who make such companions available to Illinois users but excludes business customer-service bots, entertainment bots with limited scope, voice-assistant smart speakers, narrow educational tools, and vehicle navigation bots (Section 5). Under Section 10, all operators must maintain a protocol to detect and address suicidal ideation or self-harm, refer users to crisis services such as the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, prevent generation of self-harm content, and publicly disclose a general description of the protocol and annual referral counts. Operators must also clearly notify users—at the start of every interaction and at least every three hours—that they are communicating with an automated system, not a human, and must prevent the AI from claiming to be human (Section 10). Section 15 adds minor-specific requirements: operators who know a user is a minor, or whose product is directed at minors, must implement reasonable measures to prevent generation of content harmful to minors. Enforcement under Section 20 allows the Attorney General or any county State's Attorney to bring actions; violations constitute unlawful practices under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Civil penalties are split, with 25% (rising to 50% after January 1, 2032) directed to the Statewide 9-8-8 Trust Fund. Section 25 allows individuals who suffer actual damages to sue under Section 10a of the Consumer Fraud Act. Section 35 amends the State Finance Act to add AI Companion Act fees and penalties as a funding source for the Statewide 9-8-8 Trust Fund. Section 40 amends the Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act to exempt compliant AI companion chatbots that do not provide therapy. The Act takes effect January 1, 2027 (Section 99).

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