Tech Group Warns Against Florida AI Bill of Rights

A technology trade group is pushing back against Florida's proposed artificial intelligence bill of rights as lawmakers prepare to deliberate the legislation during a Special Session. The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) is warning that states passing their own laws will create a regulatory nightmare for developers and companies operating across multiple jurisdictions.

"Artificial intelligence systems are built and deployed across state and national boundaries," said Tom Mann, State Policy Manager for the South Region at CCIA. "A patchwork of state-level requirements creates uncertainty for developers and can limit the availability of beneficial tools and services for users in Florida."

The AI bill of rights calls for sweeping changes meant to protect consumers and children. These include beefing up parental controls, requiring AI platforms to regularly disclose that the technology is AI, and more. The legislation would mandate chatbot platforms post pop-up reminders they are AI at the beginning of an interaction and at least once every hour. (Anyone who's ever tried to use a chatbot knows these interruptions would feel like a constant digital pat on the shoulder.)

According to the Florida Politics report, the bill's provisions include requiring minors to obtain parental permission to create an account with a platform using a companion chatbot. Schools using AI would be required to give parents the option to opt their children out. Technology companies that violate the rules could face fines of $10,000 or more.

"While protecting consumers and addressing risks is important, this legislation takes a broad approach that may not effectively target specific harms," Mann said. "Instead, it risks imposing significant compliance burdens while raising concerns for privacy and free expression. Policymakers should focus on clear, targeted solutions that address real risks without creating barriers to innovation or limiting access to new technologies."

Sen. Jason Brodeur refiled the AI bill of rights Friday after an identical bill died during the Regular Session. The Senate passed the measure, while the House refused to take it up. House Speaker Daniel Perez previously said he felt the federal government should take the lead regulating AI — not the states. President Donald Trump's administration contacted Perez to voice opposition to the AI bill of rights before the Regular Session ended.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has clashed publicly with Perez, is urging lawmakers to pass the bill. The governor has warned that unfettered AI access will usher in "an age of darkness and deceit." This is one of the Governor's agenda items that he has increasingly gotten more vocal about, even as the rest of the Republican Party pulls away from AI regulation.

The upcoming Special Session also covers congressional redistricting and medical freedom. Lawmakers plan to return for a second Special Session to pass the unfinished budget, which is their only constitutionally required duty. The four-day special session is scheduled for April 28 to May 1, 2026.

SB 2D would establish that Floridians have "the right to supervise, access, limit, and control their minor children's use of artificial intelligence" and "the right to know whether they are communicating" with AI. The bill would also prohibit anyone's likeness or picture being used without the person's consent. Governments would be banned from making contact about AI technology with "foreign countries of concern," such as Russia and China.

The physical reality of these requirements matters. Imagine opening a chatbot and immediately seeing a pop-up declaring it's not human. Then another reminder an hour later. Then another. The friction accumulates with each interaction, and developers must build systems to track, log, and enforce these disclosures across every user session.

SB 2D would allow the Department of Legal Affairs (DLA) to handle enforcement and launch legal proceedings against businesses violating the AI bill of rights. SB 4D creates a public records exemption with the DLA for computer forensic reports, any information that would reveal weaknesses in bot's data security or proprietary information about a bot operator. The public record exemptions would sunset October 2, 2031, unless the Legislature reapproves them.

Independent reporting from The Florida Phoenix notes that AI companies that violate the bill would have a 45-day "cure period" to fix any mistakes. If they don't, or if the attorney general deems their violations too egregious, they could face $50,000 fines. The platforms could also have to pay up to $10,000 to a minor it recklessly allows onto its server without parental consent.

Senate President Ben Albritton wrote in a memo to lawmakers Friday: "I am referring SB 2D and SB 4D to the Committee on Rules; however, by agreement of Leaders (Jim) Boyd and (Lori) Berman, we intend to take up and pass this legislation during our sitting on Tuesday."

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican favored to succeed DeSantis, received a $5 million donation last month from one of the top pro-AI super PACs in the nation. This stiff opposition casts serious doubt on the AI Bill of Rights' second chance at life. Speaker Perez isn't so sure the bill will pass. He thinks AI regulation should be left to the federal government, in alignment with a Trump executive order and federal legislation that would limit states' abilities to pass AI-restrictive legislation.

"There isn't a mandate somewhere in that executive order or somewhere in that proposed legislation for states to kind of take the initiative and have 50 different proposals on artificial intelligence," Perez said during a Sunday appearance on Glenna Milberg's "This Week in South Florida."

The bill sponsor, Sen. Tom Leek, said from the Senate floor: "There's an inherent evilness when we allow machines to create and sustain a relationship that a user believes to be real." Companion chatbots wouldn't include software used primarily by businesses, theme parks, or "artificial intelligence instructional tools," used in schools, the bill says.

Whether the bill passes remains uncertain. House Republicans have reasserted their independence in recent years and are unafraid to push back on DeSantis's agenda. The governor's push comes after the state House refused to touch the "AI Bill of Rights" even after the Senate approved the measure during the regular session.

Whether users actually pay for these protections, or whether developers can afford to comply, remains the real question.

Artūras Malašauskas is an AI Systems Integrator with 20+ years of production-grade web engineering experience. He has designed, shipped, and scaled enterprise Python/PHP systems for logistics, SaaS, and public-sector clients. For the past year, he has focused exclusively on AI integrations: deploying open-source LLMs, building generative media pipelines (image, audio, video), and engineering multi-agent workflows for real production environments. His standard: reproducibility, security, cost-efficient inference—no vaporware. He documents and evaluates emerging AI tooling, separating verified capabilities from marketing noise. Technical editor at: muza-ai.eu, ai-verslas.lt, ai-naujinos.lt Connect on LinkedIn