I spent my career building software that used artificial intelligence and machine learning to help Fortune 1000 companies make better decisions. I started my company when most people had never heard of AI, built it into something valuable, and sold it. I am not a technophobe. I believe deeply in innovation.
I also believe Florida should pass SB 482, the Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights.
The bill, now before the Senate Appropriations Committee, would establish basic consumer protections: the right to know when you’re talking to an AI instead of a human, restrictions on selling your personal data, protection against deepfakes, and parental controls so parents can monitor their children’s interactions with AI chatbots. That last provision responds to documented cases of AI chatbots encouraging children to harm themselves.
These are reasonable measures. So why is the tech industry opposing them?
The Computer & Communications Industry Association claims the bill would “create a standalone state framework” and that “fragmented state laws” make compliance difficult. The implication is that federal law already handles these issues, or soon will, making Florida’s action unnecessary.
This is simply not true.
I have reviewed the Trump administration’s December 2025 executive order on AI policy. It does not give citizens the right to know when they’re communicating with AI. It does not protect against deepfakes. It does not require parental consent for children to use AI chatbots. It does not restrict the sale of personal data. It does none of the things SB 482 would do.
That’s because the executive order’s purpose is the opposite: to prevent states from regulating AI, not to create federal protections. The order explicitly calls for a “minimally burdensome” framework. Minimal burden on industry is not the same as meaningful protection for citizens.
When the tech industry calls for “uniform national standards,” what they actually mean is no standards at all.
Here’s what makes the industry’s argument especially weak: Even the Trump executive order explicitly carves out child safety protections and state government procurement from potential federal preemption. The administration has conceded that these are legitimate areas for state action. Yet the industry is fighting Florida’s bill anyway.
The honest version of their position would be: “We don’t want to comply with parental consent requirements, disclosure obligations, or data sale restrictions, and we’d prefer no government require these things.” That’s a position they could argue on the merits. But it’s not politically palatable, so they dress it up as a federalism concern.
The choice facing Florida legislators is not between state regulation and federal regulation. It is between state regulation and no regulation.
I understand the industry’s instinct to resist oversight. I’ve been on that side of the table. But I also know that public trust is essential for any technology to succeed in the long run. When people feel that technology is being deployed against their interests — when their children are being manipulated, their likenesses stolen, their data sold — they turn hostile. That hostility eventually produces regulation far more onerous than anything in SB 482.
Smart companies understand this. Anthropic, one of the leading AI developers, has publicly supported transparency legislation similar to Florida’s bill. They recognize that reasonable guardrails build the trust that allows innovation to continue.
Governor DeSantis and Senator Tom Leek deserve credit for pushing this legislation. It’s neither reflexively anti-technology nor naively permissive. It protects consumers without strangling innovation. And it addresses real harms that are happening right now, not hypothetical risks in some distant future.
The tech industry’s “federal uniformity” argument is hollow. Florida should pass SB 482.
David Rabjohns is a Naples resident and retired technology entrepreneur. He founded and sold a software company that used AI and machine learning to serve Fortune 1000 clients.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: I built AI software. Florida’s AI bill makes sense | Opinion
Reporting by David Rabjohns / Naples Daily News
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