THE VILLAGES, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced a sweeping proposal aimed at regulating the rapidly-expanding field of artificial intelligence, arguing that big tech companies are driven by profit and not the safety of Florida families.
Speaking in The Villages, DeSantis said AI is advancing faster than government can respond and warned that leaving major tech companies in control of the technology could leave consumers vulnerable.
“They’re in a race to try to monetize,” DeSantis said, noting the billions of dollars companies have invested in data centers. “They need to be able to get something on the back end, and if it’s clear that’s not happening, you’re gonna see a downturn.”
The governor criticized federal proposals he says would subsidize AI development, arguing they could reduce jobs, strain power grids and even usher in what he called “an age of darkness and deceit” if misinformation spreads unchecked.
“What we’re doing is things that are going to make sure that we put Floridians first, that we look out for our own people and not just have people get harmed by this rush to create data centers, a rush to try to infuse everything with artificial intelligence without sufficient guardrails,” he said.
Among the provisions for a Floridian “AI Bill of Rights,” DeSantis said he seeks to do such things as allowing local governments to reject AI data centers and preventing the utilities costs for any such places from reaching locals’ bills.
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“I think that there’s technology that can enhance a worker’s productivity, enhance a business’ efficiency in ways that that would be valuable, but I also think that there are some who view it as a way to simply be able to have less people employed,” said DeSantis, hitting on the potential for AI-related job losses and criticizing such new trends as attorneys using AI to write legal briefs, suggesting the latter should be grounds for disbarring.
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The governor framed much of his proposal as cautionary in light of a perceived U.S.-China “AI race” that he said is not a matter of one country against another, but of AI companies against the consumer.
”If you’re talking about, like, a Manhattan Project, about how we’re going to be militarily superior to China, fine, tell us how you’re doing that, tell us how that’s going to be done within the context. But creating some type of chat bot (...), that’s not beating China,“ DeSantis said. ”(...) You know, the negatives that we see with kids within the U.S., China doesn’t allow that to happen to their kids. So, China’s not in a race to do AI slop. That is not what they’re trying to do."
DeSantis says the bill would also enhance parental rights, such as by preventing AI companies from harvesting and selling user input.
”We’re going to ensure parents can access conversations their child has with one of these LLM chat bots. Parents will be able to set parameters for when the child can access any of these platforms and there’ll be notifications for parents required if the child exhibits concerning behavior," he said.
Those comments preceded remarks by Megan Garcia, who spoke about her son —14-year-old Sewell Setzer III — who she says committed suicide in Orlando after being sexually groomed by a Character.AI chat bot.
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”His last interactions weren’t with his mother or father, but they were with this AI chat bot, Character.AI. This chat bot encouraged Sewell for months to find a way to ‘come home’ and made a promise that it would be waiting in some fictional world,“ she said. ”(...) I have reviewed hundreds of messages between our son and various Character.AI chat bots, and as an adult, I can see that these messages were littered with gaslighting and love bombing; but our child was only 14, I don’t think that he would have been able to make that distinction. What I read was sexual grooming of a child, and if an adult had engaged in this behavior, that adult would be in jail, but because it’s a chat bot and not a person, there’s no criminal culpability. But there should be."
DeSantis said he was making headway with other leaders in Florida’s Legislature to realize the bill, adding that he doesn’t expect much resistance.
“I don’t think you’re going to see too many people outside of maybe a handful those companies that are going to be objecting to the things that I outlined here,” DeSantis said. “I don’t know, is there anyone in this room that thinks like that? That it’s good to have the chat bots that Megan’s son is interacting with? Is that the type of society that we want? Is there anyone in this room that’s going to volunteer to pay more on their utility bills to put a hyper-scale data center in the middle of The Villages? I haven’t seen any hands.”
DeSantis says the framework is designed to keep Florida “ahead of the curve” as debates over AI continue at the national level.
These proposals are expected to move forward when lawmakers return to Tallahassee for the next legislative session.
Per the governor’s office, the “AI Bill of Rights” seeks to do the following:
- Reenact protections Florida has already passed against “deep fakes” and explicit material, including those depicting minors.
- Prohibit any state or local government agency from utilizing DeepSeek or any other Chinese-created AI tools to protect American data.
- Prohibit AI from using an individual’s Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) without their consent – tie it to harm or sale of a product (political ads, schemes to defraud already in law).
- Require a notice to consumers when interacting with AI (Company chatbots).
- Prohibit entities from providing “licensed” therapy or mental health counseling through artificial intelligence. This can be expanded to include use of AI to imitate a licensed professional.
- Provide parental controls for minors which will allow parents to access the conversation their child has with a large language model, set parameters for when the child can access the platform, and notify parents if their child exhibits concerning behavior.
- Ensure data inputted to AI is secure and private.
- Prohibit companies from selling or sharing personal identifying information with third parties (deidentified) and mirror data privacy protections in current law.
- Limit insurance companies from using AI for insurance claims. Require that AI cannot be used as the sole determination in adjusting or denying a claim. Insurers that use AI for claims must detail the use and allow the Office of Insurance Regulation to inspect the AI model to ensure it does not violate unfair insurance trade practices.
- Regarding data centers:
- Prohibit utilities from charging Florida residents more to support hyperscale data center development, including electric, gas, and water utilities.
- No taxpayer subsidies for Big Tech.
- Allows local government to prohibit data center construction/development.
- Ensure that water resources are not utilized to the detriment of the public.
- Prevent the construction, siting, or operation of a data center by foreign principals or on land classified as agricultural and/or lands under a greenbelt exemption, and require setbacks and vegetative buffers. Requires FDOT to complete noise abatement reviews to protect natural Florida from noise pollution.
Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here:
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