Artificial Intelligence Industry to Face Regulations
Artificial Intelligence is in the news – a lot these days.
The Trump Administration has elevated AI development to a national priority as security analysts identify China’s advancements as superseding American progress . . . and while communities grapple with the impacts AI is having on both the workforce and America’s youth, on Monday, the president proposed, via Truth Social, an approach to regulating the AI market.
On the same day, Governor DeSantis made an appearance in The Villages, addressing his perspective on who should be taking the lead in AI regulation. Additionally, DeSantis expressed his discomfort with the relationship the AI industry has cultivated with the White House.
Accompanying DeSantis in The Villages on Monday was Megan Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer, a fourteen year old Orlando student who took his own life in February of 2024 – at the prompting of an AI driven Chat-bot. Garcia described the role Artificial Intelligence played in her son’s suicide.
Kevin Yee is the special assistant to the provost for artificial intelligence at the University of Central Florida – he focuses on both the technology AND the ethics of its use and development. Yee joined Engage to explain how we are currently interacting with AI.
The UFL’s Orlando Storm
In March of 2026, The United Football League’s Orlando Storm will begin their inaugural season. The full schedule with dates and opponents is yet to be released by the UFL, but there is hope that the games will generate both on-site and broadcast spectatorship in a market devoid of an NFL team.
While the National Football League enjoys unrivaled dominance in the professional sports industry, there have been several attempts in recent decades to create a pro football outlet to fill the seven month football vacuum Americans face when the NFL goes into its off-season. In the 1980’s, we saw the USFL – a spring league that was able to compete with the NFL for top-line players – but not so much in TV ratings. More recently, we saw the XFL – the failed amalgam of pro wrestling and football and the AAF – the Alliance of American Football – a pro league that folded after one year – but not before providing Orlandans with a glimpse of what pro football in City Beautiful might look like.
The Apollos represented Orlando in the now-defunct AAF – an eight team league that found homes in prominent markets like Atlanta, San Diego and Memphis. Names like Steve Spurrier, Mike Singletary and Rick Neuheisel found jobs as head coaches. While the league looked successful on paper, it closed up shop after only eight weeks of play.
Michael Waddell was the former president of the Orlando Apollos – he joined ENGAGE to talk about these lower-tier pro football leagues
Ormond Beach Celebrates Chriskwanzukkah
It’s that time of the year when people of all faiths and backgrounds celebrate – whether it is the traditions of Christmas, the eight nights Jews observe Chanukkah or the weeklong celebration of African culture, Kwanzaa. At the Creative Happiness Institute in Ormond Beach, they are celebrating all three.
Now in it’s thirteenth year, the Institute hosts “Chriskwanzukkah” – an event welcoming all members of the coastal community to enjoy their own traditions while learning about others.
The Creative Happiness Institute was developed in 2009 by David Axelrod – a poet and patron of the written word. Axelrod supported Florida poets through the Institute and other initiatives – he passed away last year.
Kate Muldoon is a director-at-large with the Creative Happiness Institute – she spoke with ENGAGE about how their Christ-kwanz-ika” celebration started.
Dennis Rodney Jr. – the Tampa based poet who goes by the moniker D-ROD – is the headlining poet at the event.
Rodney was born and raised in New York City – he moved to Florida in 1999 after visiting his brother and deciding to stay. After finding his niche in Central Florida’s poetry community, Rodney began co-hosting the program “Poetry Is . . . ” on WMNF community radio in Tampa.
He will be presenting on Sunday at the “Chriskwanzukkah” celebration at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Ormond Beach and he spoke with Engage about slam poetry and how he found a home in Central Florida.
Ballroom Dancing Competition Comes to Orlando
Dancing With the Stars premiered on ABC twenty years ago, ushering in another retro dance craze, tight on the heels of a swing dance craze that had consumed hipster, swingers and marketing execs in the early aughts.
Ballroom dancing offered a foil to the hip hop and club dance trends that had consumed American culture for decades. It brought elegance and sophistication to the dance floor, coupled with contemporary music that inspired movement.
This week, Orlando is hosting the South Open Dancesport Championships – a five-day pro-am ballroom dance competition taking place at the JW Marriot Orlando, Grande Lakes.
On Tuesday evening, I traveled to Ocoee where Anna Lukashova and her husband Eugene Parkhimovich own and operate E & A Dance – a studio focused exclusively on ballroom dance instruction. Anna and Eugene teach Central Floridians how to waltz, foxtrot, tango, rhumba, samba and Pachanga.
On this night, they are training dancers to compete in the South Open.
