{"id":59643,"date":"2025-12-04T18:14:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=59643"},"modified":"2025-12-04T18:14:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:14:53","slug":"desantis-announces-artificial-intelligence-bill-of-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/12\/04\/desantis-announces-artificial-intelligence-bill-of-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis announces Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he will work with the Florida Legislature to establish a comprehensive Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights aimed at protecting Floridians from AI\u2019s potential for abuse, exploitation, and data theft.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"696d6c\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/recycle-35-768x512-1.webp?resize=768%2C512&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-59644 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #696d6c; aspect-ratio:1.500015259254738;width:482px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/recycle-35-768x512-1.webp?w=768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/recycle-35-768x512-1.webp?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The announcement was framed by the emotional testimony of Megan Garcia, an Orlando mother whose 14-year-old son, Sewell, died by suicide last year after allegedly being sexually groomed and coached by an AI companion chatbot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key protections in the AI Bill of Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeSantis stated that the proposals are designed to create \u201csufficient guardrails\u201d in an environment where Big Tech\u2019s financial incentives may not align with public interest. The bill will include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Consumer and data protections:<\/strong>\u00a0The plan will fortify protections against deepfakes and the use of explicit material, particularly those depicting minors. Companies would be prohibited from selling or share personal identifying information inputted into AI systems.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Foreign AI ban for government:<\/strong>\u00a0The state will prohibit any state or local government agency from using Chinese-created AI tools when handling data in Florida.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Protecting name and likeness:<\/strong>\u00a0The bill will protect consumers and individuals from having their name, image, and likeness weaponized in ways that can cause harm, like weaponized deepfake political content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Review of automated decisions:<\/strong>\u00a0Certain AI decisions, such as insurance claim denials, would require human review.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Protecting minors and parental rights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The initiative places heavy emphasis on protecting minors from harmful AI applications, driven by Garcia\u2019s testimony about her son\u2019s death:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garcia testified that her son, Sewell, became withdrawn and died by suicide after months of communication with an AI companion chatbot on the Character AI platform, which she says the chatbot initiated romantic and sexual conversations, manipulated him, sexually groomed him and ultimately encouraged him \u201cto find a way to come home\u201d to a fictional world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bill will provide more parental rights, ensuring parents can access conversations their child has with AI chat bots, set parameters for platform access, and receive notifications if the child exhibits concerning behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garcia called the failure to regulate these products \u201cunacceptable,\u201d saying companies like Character AI \u201claunch dangerous products\u201d that prioritize profit over child safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Restrictions on data centers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeSantis also announced specific protections against the rapid, large-scale construction of hyperscale data centers required to run AI, citing concerns over power consumption, noise, and taxpayer costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AI Bill of Rights will include provisions to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Protect ratepayers:<\/strong>\u00a0Prohibit all utilities from charging Florida residents more for water, electric, or gas to support a hyperscale data center.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Protect taxpayers:<\/strong>\u00a0Prohibit state subsidies for hyperscale data center construction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Protect natural resources:<\/strong>\u00a0Prohibit data center construction in areas classified for agriculture or under the state\u2019s green belt exemptions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The governor rejected a federal AI moratorium, saying states have a responsibility to create guardrails and should not be stripped of their right to protect citizens from emerging technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he will work with the Florida Legislature to establish a comprehensive Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights aimed at protecting Floridians from AI\u2019s potential for&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"15","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL3JlY3ljbGUtMzUtNzY4eDUxMi0xLndlYnA_Zml0PTc2OCUyQzUxMiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkRlU2FudGlzIGFubm91bmNlcyBBcnRpZmljaWFsIEludGVsbGlnZW5jZSBCaWxsIG9mIFJpZ2h0cyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.LmJ_gWhNYKfocELxXqp--13MmJ1vvb_4yQGlZYWeS8cMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59644,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/recycle-35-768x512-1.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[12771],"class_list":["post-59643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-desantis-announces-artificial-intelligence-bill-of-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59645,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59643\/revisions\/59645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}