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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed concerns over artificial intelligence, including the massive data centers needed to fuel its expansion, during a discussion at Florida Atlantic University’s Wilkes Honors College campus in Jupiter.
The Dec. 15 event, which included testimony from a member of law enforcement and parents whose children were harmed by their interactions with AI chatbots, follows DeSantis’ Dec. 4 proposal to create an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights for Floridians.
DeSantis said the legislation includes parental controls, consumer privacy protections, restrictions on the AI use of someone’s name, image or likeness without consent, and empowers local governments to reject AI data centers in their communities.
This month, Palm Beach County commissioners voted to postpone a hearing until April about a 1.8 million square-foot data center in Loxahatchee near the Arden community. The proposed AI hyperscale data center would be different than traditional data centers because it would process more information and require advanced cooling systems to handle AI tasks.
DeSantis did not directly address Palm Beach County’s proposed center but said communities are increasingly fighting the data centers because of the resources they use and what he says is a lack of future economic impact.
“Once it’s done, it employs, what, half a dozen people,” DeSantis said. “Across party lines, I think people are saying no dice on that. There is a big sea change on how people think about that.”
DeSantis said there are currently no hyperscale data centers in Florida.
The data center being proposed in Palm Beach County would be on the north side of Southern Boulevard about 4 miles west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and adjacent to a Florida Power & Light Co. energy plant.
Some residents of Arden oppose the data center, complaining about potential noise, traffic tie-ups and environmental concerns.
Part of DeSantis’ bill of rights would restrict utility companies from charging consumers more to support hyperscale data centers, and include protections for water resources and the environment.
“These are some of the most wealthy companies in the history of humanity, and they should not be able to offload costs on people who are already strapped,” DeSantis said about tech firms. “You should not have to pay one more dime in utility costs because of this.”
Other speakers at the Dec. 12 event included Orlando mother Megan Garcia, who sued Character.AI last year after her 14-year-old son committed suicide following discussions with the company’s chatbot.
“If this were a person, that person would be in jail,” she said about the bot.
Mandi Furniss, of Texas, also spoke about the harm done to her teenage son with autism who tried to commit suicide after using a Character.AI chatbot.
“He stopped eating, he lost weight, he wouldn’t leave the house, he started acting erratic,” Furniss said. “He would kick and punch me when I would try and take his phone away. He would try and sneak it any way he could, like an addiction.”
Garcia and Furniss support the AI bill of rights.
Something similar should have been considered at the onset of social media, DeSantis said.
But AI has the potential to have even more impact for good and bad.
“AI is taking the world by storm,” said panel member George Perera, commander of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Strategic Innovation and High Technology Crimes Bureau. “There has been nothing in the history of mankind that has gotten the traction that AI has.”
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism: Subscribe today.
