Florida Takes a Leading Role in the State Push to Regulate AI and Big Tech
Through litigation, child-protection requirements and proposed safeguards, Florida has become an aggressive state regulator of artificial intelligence and major technology platforms - even as its own House speaker blocked the governor's proposed AI Bill of Rights.
Florida is emerging as an aggressive regulator of artificial intelligence and major technology platforms, using litigation, child protection requirements and proposed safeguards to challenge the federal government's preference for lighter oversight. Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier have cast technology oversight as a defense of children, consumer privacy and human agency, and their campaign highlights a widening state-federal divide over who should set the rules for the digital economy.
The state's most consequential confrontation is with OpenAI. Florida opened a criminal investigation in April after reviewing communications between ChatGPT and the suspected gunman in the fatal 2025 shooting at Florida State University, here in Tallahassee. In June, Florida filed what has been described as the first state civil lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, alleging the company knowingly released an unsafe product that facilitates self-harm and violence; those allegations remain claims, rather than findings of liability. In September, Uthmeier sought a temporary injunction that would bar OpenAI from developing new models without stringent safety safeguards. OpenAI has said it supports working with states on pragmatic policies while maintaining that its platform is not responsible for users' criminal acts.
Florida has also pursued social media companies: a 2024 state law prohibits social media accounts for children younger than 14 and requires parental consent for certain older minors, and Florida joined New Mexico in rejecting a proposed $18 billion Meta child safety settlement. The agenda has limits inside Florida's own leadership - House Speaker Daniel Perez blocked DeSantis' proposed AI Bill of Rights after it passed the Senate - and a December presidential executive order directed the federal administration to work with Congress toward a minimally burdensome national standard. For technology companies, the result is a Florida landscape of active litigation, contested legislation and continuing uncertainty over the boundaries of state authority.