Mary Edly-Allen

Illinois State Senator who was Senate sponsor of the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act and who, with four fellow state legislators, called on the frontier labs to pace development until safety research catches up, warning that a catastrophe would otherwise result.

Roles

9 Jan 2019 – 13 Jan 2021State Representative, 51st District, Illinois House of RepresentativesSource →
11 Jan 2023 – presentState Senator, 31st District, Illinois SenateSenate sponsor of SB 315, the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act, signed 6 July 2026, as attested by Capitol News Illinois.Source →

On the record

3 Sept 2026 · Statement · Joint statement of five state legislators
If researchers cannot reliably prevent their models from going rogue, much of our digital infrastructure and the essential systems that keep our society running are at risk. … Given the urgency, we call on them to work together to eliminate the risk that a catastrophe will result from their rush to build highly capable AI systems before solving problems of alignment and safety.
State Senator, 31st District, Illinois Senate at the time
Signed with Alex Bores and Andrew Gounardes (New York), Daniel Didech (Illinois) and Scott Wiener (California); dated 3 September on its face, published by Wiener's office on 4 September, calling on frontier labs to establish a Mutually Agreed Pacing Framework verified by third parties.
A Joint Statement of State Legislative Sponsors of Frontier AI Safety Laws →
6 Jul 2026 · Speech · Capitol News Illinois
We are not willing to wait for Congress to act. … Teach AI to fish, though, and it might just empty the whole river trying to figure out how.
State Senator, 31st District, Illinois Senate at the time
At the Chicago signing of SB 315; the full passage runs "There's an old saying: Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Teach AI to fish, though…".
Pritzker signs landmark AI regulation bill that aims to mitigate risks →