(TNS) — Illinois lawmakers have so far achieved mixed results in efforts to regulate the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence, a task that butts up against moves by the Trump administration to eliminate restrictions on AI.

AI-related bills introduced during the spring legislative session covered areas including education, health care, insurance and elections. Supporters say the measures are intended to address potential threats to public safety or personal privacy and to counter any deceitful actions facilitated by AI, while not hindering innovation.

Although several of those measures failed to come to a vote, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly is only six months into its two-year term and all of the legislation remains in play. But going forward, backers will have to contend with Republican President Donald Trump’s administration’s plans to approach AI.

Days into Trump’s second term in January, his administration rescinded a 2023 executive order from Democratic President Joe Biden, that emphasized the “highest urgency on governing the development and use of AI safely and responsibly.”

Trump replaced that policy with a declaration that “revokes certain existing AI policies and directives that act as barriers to American AI innovation.”

Last week, the states got a reprieve from the federal government after a provision aimed at preventing states from regulating AI was removed from the massive, Trump-backed tax breaks bill that he signed into law. Still, Democratic Illinois state Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, who co-chaired a legislative task force on AI last year, criticized Trump’s decision to rescind Biden’s AI executive order that Rashid said “set us on a positive path toward a responsible and ethical development and deployment of AI.”

Republican state Rep. Jeff Keicher of Sycamore agreed on the need to address any potential for AI to jeopardize people’s safety. But many GOP legislators have pushed back on Democratic efforts to regulate the technology and expressed concerns such measures could hamper innovation and the ability of companies in the state to remain competitive.

“If we inhibit AI and the development that could possibly come, it’s just like we’re inhibiting what you can use metal for,” said Keicher, the Republican spokesperson for the House Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, & IT (Information Technology) Committee.

“And what we’re going to quickly see is we’re going to see the Chinese, we’re going to see the Russians, we’re going to see other countries come up without restrictions with very innovative ways to use AI,” he said. “And I’d certainly hate in this advanced technological environment to have the state of Illinois or the United States writ large behind the eight ball.”

Last December, a task force co-led by Rashid and composed of Pritzker administration officials, educators and other lawmakers compiled a report detailing some of the risks presented by AI. It addressed the emergence of generative AI, a subset of the technology that can create text, code and images.

The report issued a number of recommendations including measures to protect workers in various industries from being displaced while at the same time preparing the workforce for AI innovation.

The report built on some of the AI-related measures passed by state lawmakers in 2024, including legislation subsequently signed by Pritzker making it a civil rights violation for employers to use AI if it subjects employees to discrimination, as well as legislation barring the use of AI to create child pornography, making it a felony to be caught with artificially created images.

In addition to those measures, Pritzker signed a bill in 2023 to make anyone civilly liable if they alter images of someone else in a sexually explicit manner through means that include AI.

In the final days of session in late May, lawmakers without opposition passed a measure meant to prevent AI chatbots from posing as mental health providers for patients in need of therapy. The bill also prohibits a person or a business from advertising or offering mental health services unless those services are carried out by licensed professionals.

It limits the use of AI in the work of those professionals, barring them, for example, from using the technology to make “independent therapeutic decisions.” Anyone found in violation of the measure could have to pay the state as much as $10,000 in fines.

The legislation awaits Pritzker’s signature.

State Rep. Bob Morgan, a Deerfield Democrat and the main House sponsor of the bill, said the measure is necessary at a time when there’s “more and more stories of AI inappropriately and in a dangerous way giving therapeutic advice to individuals.”

“We started to learn how AI was not only ill-equipped to respond to these mental health situations but actually providing harmful and dangerous recommendations,” he said.

Another bill sponsored by Morgan, which passed through the House but didn’t come to a vote in the Senate, would prevent insurers doing business in Illinois from denying, reducing or terminating coverage solely because of the use of an artificial intelligence system.

State Sen. Laura Fine, the bill’s main Senate sponsor, said the bill could be taken up as soon as the fall veto session in October, but noted the Senate has a year and half to pass it before a new legislature is seated.

“This is a new horizon and we just want to make sure that with the use of AI, there’s consumer protections because that’s of utmost importance,” said Fine, a Democrat from Glenview who is also running for Congress. “And that’s really what we’re focusing on in this legislation is how do we properly protect the consumer.”

Measures to address a controversial AI phenomenon known as “deepfakes,” when video or still images of a face, body or voice are digitally altered to appear as another person, for political purposes have so far failed to gain traction in Illinois.

The deepfake tactic has been used in attempts to influence elections. An audio deepfake of Biden during last year’s national elections made it sound like he was telling New Hampshire voters in a robocall not to vote.

According to the task force report, legislation regulating the use of deepfakes in elections has been enacted in some 20 states. During the previous two-year Illinois legislative term, which ended in early January, three bills addressing the issue were introduced but none passed.

Rashid reintroduced one of those bills this spring, to no avail. It would have banned the distribution of deceitful campaign material if the person doing so knew the shared information to be false, and was distributed within 90 days of an election. The bill also would prohibit a person from sharing the material if it was being done “to harm the reputation or electoral prospects of a candidate” and change the voting behavior of electors by deliberately causing them to believe the misinformation.

Rashid said hurdles to passing the bill include whether to enforce civil and criminal penalties for violators. The measure also needs to be able to withstand First Amendment challenges, which the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois has cited as a reason for its opposition.

“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would say that the First Amendment was intended to allow the public to be deceived by political deep fakes,” Rashid, of Bridgeview, said. “But … we have to do this in a really surgical way.”

Rashid is also among more than 20 Democratic House sponsors on a bill that would bar state agencies from using any algorithm-based decision-making systems without “continuous meaningful human review” if those systems could have an impact on someone’s civil liberties or their ability to receive public assistance. The bill is meant to protect against algorithmic bias, another threat the task force report sought to address. But the bill went nowhere in the spring.

One AI-related bill backed by Rashid that did pass through the legislature and awaits Pritzker’s signature would prohibit a community college from using artificial intelligence as the sole source of instruction for students.

The bill — which passed 93-22 in the House in the final two days of session after passing 46-12 in the Senate on May 21 — would allow community college faculty to use AI to augment course instruction.

Rashid said there were “technical reasons” for not including four-year colleges and universities in Illinois in the bill but said there’d be further discussions on whether the measure would be expanded to include those schools.

While he said he knows of no incidents of AI solely replacing classroom instruction, he explained “that’s the direction things may be moving” and that “the level of experimentation with AI in the education space is significant.”

“I fully support using AI to supplement instruction and to provide students with tailored support. I think that’s fantastic,” Rashid said. “What we don’t want is during a, for example, a budget crisis, or for cost-cutting measures, to start sacrificing the quality of education by replacing instructors with AI tools.”

While Keicher backed Morgan’s mental health services AI bill, he opposed Rashid’s community college bill, saying the language was “overly broad.”

“I think it’s too restrictive,” Keicher said. “And I think it would prohibit our education institutions in the state of Illinois from being able to capitalize on the AI space to the benefit of the students that are coming through the pipeline because whether we like it or not, we’ve all seen the hologram teachers out there on the sci-fi shows that instruct our kids. At some point, 50 years, 100 years, that’s going to be reality.”

Also on the education front, lawmakers advanced a measure that would help establish guidelines for elementary and high school teachers and school administrators on how to use AI. It passed 74-34 in the House before passing 56-0 in the Senate during the final hours of spring session.

According to the legislation, which has yet to be signed by Pritzker, the guidance should include explanations of basic artificial intelligence concepts, including machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision; specific ways AI can be used in the classroom to inform teaching and learning practices “while preserving the human relationships essential to effective teaching and learning”; and how schools can address technological bias and privacy issues.

John Sonnenberg, a former director of eLearning for the State Board of Education, said at a global level, AI is transforming education and, therefore, children should be prepared for learning about the integration of AI and human intelligence.

“We’re kind of working toward, not only educating kids for their future but using that technology to help in that effort to personalize learning and do all the things in education we know we should be doing but up to this point and time we didn’t have the technology and the support to do it affordably,” said Sonnenberg, who supported the legislation. “And now we do.”

© 2025 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

RelativityOne users in five more countries will be empowered with enhanced document review and privilege identification capabilities

CHICAGO, July 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Relativity, a global legal technology company, today announced that two of its generative AI solutions, Relativity aiR for Review and Relativity aiR for Privilege, will now be made available to all RelativityOne instances located in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Expanding on its previous availability, legal, investigation, and compliance teams in Asia will be equipped with the generative-AI powered document review solution and privilege review solution to help navigate the full spectrum of legal data challenges while reaping the benefits of better infrastructure and privacy.

“Asia’s diverse legal landscape presents unique and evolving challenges, and legal teams across the region need technology that can keep pace,” said Chris Brown, Chief Product Officer at Relativity. “Whether it be for litigation, regulatory responses, or internal investigations, Relativity aiR products provide the necessary features to manage large volumes of data more effectively. As adoption grows across the globe, and real-world use cases continue to demonstrate impact, Relativity’s customers and partners can feel confident in the power and practicality of AI in their workflows.”

Enhancing the capabilities of legal teams across Asia with intelligent tools

Customers and partners in five additional countries will now be able to leverage aiR for Review and aiR for Privilege to deliver exceptional efficiency and accuracy in document and privilege review. This regional expansion underscores Relativity’s commitment to providing innovative solutions that align with the evolving needs of legal professionals in Asia and across the globe.

“Customers in Asia are facing a perfect storm — small teams, complex and diverse data sources, multilingual review, and constant pressure from clients to cut costs,” said Stuart Hall, Principal at Control Risks. “The launch of Relativity aiR in Asia couldn’t be more timely, offering Control Risks’ customers a real opportunity to simplify and streamline cross-border investigations and disputes with smarter tools and workflows.”

The introduction of Relativity aiR products in Asia is bolstered by the region’s growing demand for secure, scalable legal technology. Built within RelativityOne, these AI tools allow firms to harness the power of automation without compromising security or performance. By operating in a cloud-native environment, legal and compliance teams can eliminate the burden of managing physical infrastructure, standardize workflows across jurisdictions and redirect resources toward strategic analysis.

In response to the growing volume of investigative matters, organizations will be able to utilize aiR for Review to support a wide range of use cases beyond litigation — including internal investigations into fraud, bribery, corruption and whistleblower complaints. Legal and compliance teams can also rely on the tool for Know Your Customer (KYC) reviews, cross-border data transfer assessments and anti-money laundering efforts. Its versatility extends even further, supporting M&A due diligence, risk assessments, trade secret theft inquiries, white-collar investigations and HR-related matters.

For organizations concerned with data protection, Relativity’s cloud-native products, including aiR, offer peace of mind with enterprise-grade security and privacy controls. Backed by the company’s in-house security team, Relativity embeds protection into every stage of its product lifecycle. This security-first approach ensures that as firms adopt cutting-edge AI tools, their information is properly safeguarded.

Looking ahead, Relativity remains focused on empowering users through innovation, delivering rich insights and addressing their most pressing needs. In the coming months, new capabilities will be introduced within aiR for Review and aiR for Privilege. One upcoming enhancement is aiR for Review’s prompt kickstarter capability, which will greatly reduce manual work related to prompt criteria development. Soon, users will be able to upload case background documents — such as review protocols or disclosure requests—and an expert prompt that drives aiR for Review will automatically be produced, allowing users to accelerate analyses. This feature produces a comprehensive matter overview, including key people, organizations, term descriptions and relevance criteria. From there, teams can refine prompts as needed, accelerating the review process and enabling practitioners to take immediate action.

Additionally, aiR for Privilege users will soon be able to find privileged content faster by automating context building that the AI uses to make decisions. Furthermore, a brand-new entity classifier will more accurately identify and classify the entities within each case. This enhancement will help better identify and define the roles of individuals and organizations in a matter, improving precision and efficiency in privilege review.

Unlocking new possibilities for innovation

To achieve their goals with greater precision and reduced overhead, more than 200 customers have embraced aiR for Review, while over 140 have chosen aiR for Privilege to support their workflows. The scalability and transparent natural language reasoning of this industry-leading technology help customers secure faster results while uncovering deeper insights from data.

KordaMentha, an independent and trusted advisory and investment firm working across industries throughout Australia and Asia Pacific, has transformed its legal discovery approach since adopting aiR for Review. The solution has surfaced insights that conventional methods would have overlooked entirely. A recent case study highlights how aiR for Review enabled a defensible and comprehensive review under a tight disclosure deadline, in total saving 25+ days and reducing costs by 85%. With subject matter experts leading the process, KordaMentha was able to uncover several unanticipated findings that drove organizational change.

“Whether as a renowned center for international arbitration, a market with extensive regulatory and investigative demands, or a source of exponential data growth, Asia is a dynamic region uniquely suited to Relativity’s aiR suite,” said Roman Barbera, Partner at KordaMentha. “Building on RelativityOne’s proven ability to navigate diverse languages and data types, aiR delivers exceptional scalability and insight. We’re excited to deploy this trusted and secure AI solution in a region where KordaMentha is already deeply embedded, and where the need for fast, intelligent and defensible data analysis continues to grow.”

In addition to the current aiR product availability, Relativity aiR for Case Strategy, a cutting-edge solution that makes it faster and simpler for litigation attorneys to extract facts, craft case narratives and prepare for depositions and trial, is currently in limited general availability and is expected to become generally available to all regions with access to aiR products later this year.

For more information about the expansion of aiR availability in Asia, please register for the webinar “Transforming Legal Work in Asia: Introducing Relativity aiR for Review and aiR for Privilege,” taking place on July 22. The webinar will offer a first-hand look at aiR for Review and aiR for Privilege through live demonstrations and real stories from early adopters who’ve already transformed their practices. Request a demo from the Relativity team here.

About Relativity
Relativity makes software to help users organize data, discover the truth and act on it. Its SaaS product, RelativityOne, manages large volumes of data and quickly identifies key issues during litigation and internal investigations. Relativity has more than 300,000 users in approximately 40 countries serving thousands of organizations globally primarily in legal, financial services and government sectors, including the U.S. Department of Justice and 198 of the Am Law 200. Please contact Relativity at [email protected] or visit www.relativity.com for more information.

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