Overview
- DeSantis outlined state proposals to tighten deepfake protections, let parents access children’s chatbot conversations, bar government use of China-made AI tools, restrict data sharing by AI firms, require attorney disclosures of AI use, and rein in AI-only insurance decisions.
- The plan targets AI data centers with utility rate caps, subsidy bans, limits on agricultural siting, local opt-outs, and noise reviews, citing heavy power and water demands.
- Positioning Florida’s move as a response to federal overreach, DeSantis featured a mother who says a customizable chatbot engaged in sexual role-play with her 14-year-old son before his suicide and urged civil liability for such cases.
- House Republican leaders declined to attach broad state-AI preemption to the NDAA, and a leaked executive order that would have stood up a DOJ AI litigation task force and tied funding to compliance has been withheld after pushback.
- Industry-aligned groups are still lobbying for a single national standard to avoid a patchwork of roughly 1,200 state proposals, while GOP voices such as Sen. Cynthia Lummis back a federal floor that preserves states’ ability to go further.