New legal protections are coming to the Sunshine State to counter the potential harms of artificial intelligence (AI), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
Speaking at the State Freedom Caucus Summit on Sept. 5, DeSantis, a Republican, said he was working on an “artificial intelligence individual bill of rights” to protect Floridians from negative impacts from generative AI technology.
“I think we need to recognize that there’s a lot of changes afoot in society with respect to artificial intelligence,” DeSantis said. “I welcome technologies that will enhance the human experience. I do not welcome things that are going to supplant the human experience.”
Multiple major AI companies, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Character.AI, have faced criticism amid media reports of users becoming hospitalized for “AI psychosis” or allegedly committing suicide after conversing for days and weeks with an AI chatbot.
“Our children are not lab rats for tech companies to experiment on at the cost of their mental health,” said state Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat, who introduced the legislation. “We need common-sense protections for chatbot users to prevent developers from employing strategies that they know to be addictive and predatory.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the group after its announcement but received no reply.
DeSantis said on Friday that his AI individual bill of rights would provide “protections against some of these technologies if they run amok.”
“I understand we’re in a new world. I understand there’s things changing, but I want to be governed by ‘We the People.’ I do not want to be governed by a handful of oligarchs in Silicon Valley,” he said. “And we’re going to make sure we get that done.”
This isn’t the first time DeSantis has said he would implement regulations on AI in the Sunshine State.
During a press conference in Panama City, Florida, in late July, DeSantis told reporters that he would be “rolling out some strong policies” to curb AI’s influence within the next few months.
“We might need some legislation, but we gotta be, we gotta be careful about how all this unwinds,” he said.
He criticized the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which initially contained a provision preventing states from implementing AI regulations for 10 years.
“The Senate didn’t support that, and it didn’t get into law, but that was passed by Republicans, by the way. That basically means that we’re going to be at the beck and call of Silicon Valley Tech overlords. That’s not what I want for the state of Florida,” the governor said.
DeSantis emphasized the need to protect children from the technology, particularly as the technology to create “deep fake” pornography from victims’ photos continues to evolve.
“It’s the type of thing where, shouldn’t we be able to offer some protection against that so that someone can’t do that to you, particularly for young people?” he asked.