TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Legislation putting new restrictions on large-scale data centers, a major plank of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to put guardrails on artificial intelligence, cleared its first House committee on Tuesday.
The State Affairs Committee voted 24-1 on the measure (HB 1007) that, in part, addresses key issues such as electricity and water use needed to maintain the data centers.
With less than three weeks remaining in the regular session and the bill slated to appear before two more committees, Panama City Beach Republican Rep. Griff Griffitts said his proposal isn’t intended to shut down data centers.
“We’re trying to learn off the lessons from other states that are going through problems right now,” Griffitts said.
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While the House is advancing DeSantis’ call for rules around data centers, his proposal for an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights” still hasn’t made an appearance, as leadership has been vocal that the federal government should get the first crack at any effort to regulate the rapidly maturing tech field.
The issue for some Republicans, including House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, is that President Donald Trump has called for nationwide rules on AI rather than a state-by-state approach.
Trump issued an executive order on Dec. 11 that required the U.S. Department of Justice to create an “AI Litigation Council” to review “onerous” state laws that don’t align with the White House’s positions. States not in alignment could become ineligible for money intended to expand high-speed internet or face lawsuits.
That hasn’t stopped DeSantis or the efforts in the Senate, where versions of the data center bill (SB 484) and an “AI Bill of Rights” (SB 482) are both expected to appear before the full Senate on Wednesday.
[WATCH: Florida governor calls for artificial-intelligence bill of rights]
The bill of rights includes the establishment of a right for parents to control children’s interactions with artificial intelligence; that people have a right to know when they’re communicating with a human or an AI system or chatbot; and restrictions on the unauthorized use of people’s names, images or likenesses.
Griffitts’ data center proposal calls for the Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities, to develop what are known as “tariffs” and service requirements to “reasonably ensure that each large load customer bears its own full cost of service and that such cost is not shifted to the general body of ratepayers.”
That would include costs related to issues such as connecting to electric systems and increased power transmission and generation costs.
The measure also restricts agencies from entering nondisclosure agreements involving the potential development of a data center and prohibits construction within five miles of a residential property or school unless given unanimous support from the local government.
Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani said the guardrails are needed to protect water and utility consumers and consider long-term return on investment.
“Obviously, we always want to be cutting edge with technology, but we have to balance that with the public good and the public interest,” Eskamani said. “And when I think about the fact that data centers, they create jobs in construction but they’re not sustainable jobs. Data centers don’t require a lot of people day to day.”
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In voting against the measure, Cape Coral Republican Rep. Mike Giallombardo raised issues with the prohibition on nondisclosure agreements.
“These are billion-dollar projects,” Giallombardo said. “No company or private developer or anybody is going to put a billion dollars into something, especially in the site selection process, and not sign an NDA. It just doesn’t happen. I just think this bill just eliminates data centers.”
Critics of the proposal also said the measure creates a competitively unbalanced field with other large-scale projects, particularly with the language banning data centers within 5 miles of any residential property or schools.
“Developers must already identify sites with sufficient power, transmission access, fiber connectivity and water availability, adding a fixed geographic buffer further narrows technically viable options,” said TechNet’s Florida Executive Director Katie Kelly.
Earlier this 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.”