Legislation aimed at protecting consumers’ interactions with artificial intelligence passed through the Senate on Wednesday.
But with just over a week remaining in the regular session, the measure backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and dubbed the “AI Bill of Rights” hasn’t moved in the House, where Speaker Daniel Perez maintained the issue should be handled at the federal level.
“The White House position on AI and the House’s position on AI have both been pretty clear publicly,” Perez told reporters after the House floor session on Wednesday. “We do believe that the federal government should take care of AI, and whatever legislation or policy has to pass on a national level, as opposed to doing it on a state basis.”
Perez added, “I know, at the right time, that the White House will get involved to make the right changes on the policy front when it comes to AI and to protect our children.”
After Perez talked with reporters, the Senate voted 35-2 on the measure (SB 482) that establishes a right for parents to control children’s interactions with AI chatbots.
Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, voted against the proposal.
Grall unsuccessfully sought to amend the bill to give parents of a minor the opportunity to authorize or “opt-in” to when a student is given access to an artificial intelligence instructional tool.
“You’re talking about high stakes with AI,” Grall said. “You're talking about technology that requires information that's sensitive to our child, that gives them data outputs that's about a profile, prediction, monitoring, something that can influence them.”
Leek sponsored 'AI Bill of Rights'
Ormond Beach Republican Sen. Tom Leek, the sponsor of the bill, said he suspects the Senate will be dealing with the impacts of artificial intelligence “for many, many years to come,” particularly as it comes to companion chatbots.
“These are not the bots that you may run into to answer a routine question on a website, but instead, they are created to sustain a relationship with a user that may seem real,” Leek said.
The proposal declares that people have a right to know when they’re communicating with a human or an AI system or chatbot, and sets rules about the unauthorized use of people’s names, images or likenesses.
The measure also says people have a right to know whether political advertisements were created in whole or in part with the use of artificial intelligence and would prohibit government agencies in Florida from contracting with AI firms tied to what is known as a “foreign country of concern,” such as China or Russia.
The House version of the proposal (HB 1395) didn’t appear before any of its four scheduled committee stops.
In January, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a national tech-industry group, sent a letter to the Senate opposing the bill.
Tom Mann, state policy manager for the group, said in a release Leek’s bill “would create a standalone state framework that increases compliance burdens without delivering clear safety benefits.”
Last month, DeSantis held a roundtable on artificial intelligence at New College of Florida in Sarasota where he stressed that the state has a responsibility to channel technology to benefit people and enhance, rather than supplant, the human experience.
“It's being proposed and purported to be not just something that could kind of take us to the next level,” DeSantis said during the February 4 roundtable. “There are some people who are big advocates of that, who almost relish in the fact that they think this just displaces human beings and then ultimately you're going to have AI run society and that you're not going to be able to control it. Count me out on that.”
The Senate previously approved a separate measure (SB 484) that addresses issues around massive data centers, such as the impact of electricity and water use on other utility ratepayers. The House has advanced similar legislation (HB 1007) through two committees.
