Far from creating chaos, recent AI laws in states like California and New York are functioning as intended policy laboratories. By experimenting with concepts like independent testing and risk-based scoping, they are reducing uncertainty and creating a foundation for a more informed and effective federal AI framework.

Instead of trying to anticipate every potential harm, AI regulation should mandate open, internationally consistent audit trails, similar to financial transaction logs. This shifts the focus from pre-approval to post-hoc accountability, allowing regulators and the public to address harms as they emerge.

With federal AI legislation stalled, states like Illinois, California, and New York are passing their own AI safety laws. Leading AI labs are endorsing these bills, recognizing that this state-level patchwork is effectively becoming the national standard for AI governance in the U.S.

The Independent Verification Organization (IVO) model proposes a market of private, licensed verifiers, not a single government body. This competition is designed to accelerate innovation in safety science and ensure accountability, as underperforming IVOs can have their licenses revoked.

New technologies like electricity, cars, and now AI gain societal trust through a reinforcing cycle. Industry standards create a safety baseline, third-party audits verify compliance, and insurance covers the remaining residual risk, creating a powerful adoption flywheel.

The AI auditing field risks a race to the bottom, where firms offer cheap, superficial audits. To ensure accountability, legislation must require auditors to publicly post their methodologies and code, allowing the community to scrutinize their work and establish robust standards.

In the absence of federal leadership, Governor Newsom's administration has pushed through legislation to regulate large language and frontier AI models, focusing on transparency and safety. This positions California, home to the AI industry, as the primary rule-maker for a technology its own founders call potentially dangerous.

California's massive economy and history of setting de facto national standards (e.g., vehicle emissions) could create a stable enough market to support a robust ecosystem of AI auditors (IVOs). This provides the certainty needed for AI auditing to become a viable, for-profit industry.

Illinois's new AI safety law introduces a key accountability measure missing from other state regulations: required independent, third-party audits of major AI systems. This move, supported by OpenAI and Anthropic, establishes a stronger framework for external oversight of AI safety.