DeSantis is pressuring the Florida House to approve an AI Bill of Rights. (Photo by Shalina Chatlani/Stateline)
Four days before a special legislative session in part to debate regulation of artificial intelligence, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday pressured the Florida House to fetter the technology’s power — a topic members have avoided in deference to the White House.
“It was not something that the House believed required their attention in the regular session — I don’t think that works with voters,” DeSantis said during a Jacksonville press conference. “I think voters are going to look and say, ‘Why are you siding with big tech against the people of this state?’”
AI corporations are the “wealthiest, most powerful companies in the history of the world,” he added.
DeSantis spoke about his “AI Bill of Rights,” sweeping regulations overwhelmingly approved by the state Senate during the 60-day regular session. But the House never touched it, largely because Speaker Danny Perez — who’s frequently feuded with the governor — sided with President Donald Trump’s call to establish a single federal framework.
The legislation is being revived just days after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a landmark criminal investigation into one of the top artificial intelligence companies, OpenAI, for its alleged role in last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University.
ChatGPT, owned by OpenAI, communicated with the shooter mere minutes before he opened fire. Seemingly without realizing the context to the murderer’s questions, the bot dutifully told 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner how to operate a shotgun and Glock handgun; identified the busiest time on campus and how Florida punishes school shooters; and predicted how many deaths would be necessary to garner national media attention.
“We see ChatGPT, what they did with this FSU shooting,” DeSantis said Wednesday. “You’ve seen what they’ve done with these teenagers, these chat bots. This is totally out of control, and these are very commonsense things to be able to protect the people of the state.”
The Senate next week plans to file an identical version of the AI Bill of Rights that failed during the regular session.
This would mean a ban on companion chatbots — AI systems that mimic emotional connection — speaking to minors without parental consent, and a requirement that bots frequently remind users they are not human.
Offending companies that don’t fix violations within 45 days could face $50,000 in fines, the bill says. It also would allow parents to opt-out their children from using AI tools and restrict elementary schools from employing certain AI devices.
The special session will also address mid-decade redistricting and repealing vaccine mandates for children. Both issues have faced pushback from other Republicans, who worry that redrawing congressional lines could cost them conservative seats and that striking vaccine requirements would be unpopular.