‘AI Week’ crashed by Trump-DeSantis battle over regulation: What’s next?
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Florida House plans comprehensive, multi-committee study of technology’s implications.
This article was originally published by Florida Phoenix.
A fight between President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis has dominated Florida House Speaker Danny Perez’s planned “artificial intelligence week” in the Legislature, intended to explore the technology.
Although Perez, a Miami Republican, had planned for weeks to use Dec. 8-12 committee hearings to analyze the effects of AI in different Florida industries, the topic took on a national angle when Trump announced early Monday that he would sign an executive order creating a national rule preventing states from handing down their own regulations.
That put him in direct conflict with DeSantis, who’s long-railed against the dangers of AI and last week rolled out a proposal called the “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights.”
“There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week. You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something.”
Hours later, DeSantis indirectly responded on X, asserting, “An executive order doesn’t/can’t preempt state legislative action. Congress could, theoretically, preempt states through legislation…I doubt Congress has the votes to pass this because it is so unpopular with the public.”
He referenced the U.S. House passing the “One Big Beautiful Bill” over the summer with a clause banning states from regulating AI for 10 years. The Senate voted 99-1 to strip that section out.
This is the latest — and most blatant — escalation in GOP politicos’ dispute over AI. DeSantis worries that unmonitored AI could usher in an age of “darkness and deceit” while Trump — allied with technology titans like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — has for months toyed with banning state-level AI regulations.
This fiscal year alone, massive companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are expected to invest more than $364 billion in the industry. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is pulling in roughly $13 billion in annual revenue while enjoying more than 800 million regular users.
And although the governor hopes lawmakers will crack down on AI data centers and “grooming” chatbots, and will protect consumer data from AI companies, a nationwide moratorium would severely limit the Legislature’s ability to do so.
Senate President Ben Albritton expressed support for the governor’s position but said he’ll wait and see what’s in Trump’s executive order before acting, he told reporters on Monday.
What can we expect this week?
The Florida House has scheduled 14 committee hearings from Tuesday through Thursday to discuss AI use in different facets of the Sunshine State’s industries.
The House meetings are designed to simply discuss AI’s alignment in different facets of Florida law — not set policy. House members believe that should be done federally. Multiple committees will weigh in on the repercussions of data centers on utility rates and use of artificial intelligence in emergency management, agriculture, education, health, criminal justice, and more.
Update: This story now highlights that the House does not intend on setting policy — just exploring AI’s effect on various Florida industries.