AI companies must disclose how systems work and what risks they pose.
S. 5471 — AI Systems Transparency Act · Filed by Christopher Coons (D-DE) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill makes big AI companies share details about how their systems work. They must explain what safety steps they take and how they use people's data. The FTC will write the rules and punish companies that break them. Companies must give different information to regular people and to researchers. The rules apply to AI systems with over 1 million U.S. users per month. They also apply if 100,000 users per month can access the system and kids can use it.
Who it affects
People and researchers who use big AI systems will learn more about how they work. They will learn what risks the systems have. AI companies that make or run large systems must follow new disclosure rules. The FTC will enforce the rules.
One thing to notice
The FTC will decide what counts as a big risk. Companies can hide trade secrets and security details. But they must say whether they tested for harmful uses.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Sep 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- FTC — The Federal Trade Commission, the federal agency that stops unfair business practices.
- trade secrets — Private business information that gives a company an edge over rivals.
- disclosure — Telling the public facts about something, especially facts a company would rather hide.
- enforce — Make sure people follow the rules and punish them if they break them.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (23,517 characters) on Oct 1, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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