JUPITER, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a roundtable Monday morning at FAU to continue to push for legislation to protect Floridians, especially parents and children, from the dangers of artificial intelligence.
Earlier this month, DeSantis said he would be proposing to the Florida Legislature a bill of rights to fortify protections against deepfakes, data privacy and misuse of personal information.
During Monday’s news conference in Jupiter, DeSantis reiterated the importance of enhancing these protections. He was joined by a mother who lost her son after she said an AI platform encouraged him to take his life.
“It’s very hard to tell what’s real and what is not real anymore,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis’ roundtable came less than a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at blocking states from crafting their own regulations for artificial intelligence, saying the burgeoning industry is at risk of being stifled by a patchwork of onerous rules while in a battle with Chinese competitors for supremacy.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “there’s only going to be one winner” as nations race to dominate artificial intelligence, and China’s central government gives its companies a single place to go for government approvals.
The executive order directs the Attorney General to create a new task force to challenge state laws, and directs the Commerce Department to draw up a list of problematic regulations.