Florida taking steps to regulate Artificial Intelligence in 2024

Reporter: Annalise Iraola
Published: Updated:
Artificial Intelligence
CREDIT: WINK News

How do you govern a developing technology when nobody knows the extent of its capabilities yet? Florida lawmakers have filed several different proposals to keep content generated by artificial intelligence under control.

WINK News gave Open AI the prompt, “Summarize artificial intelligence in a 10-second television script,” the response was interesting.

“AI, changing tomorrow, today. From self-driving cars to medical breakthroughs, the ethical questions, the societal impact. Artificial intelligence shaping our future,” was the response to the prompt.

And that’s a small peek into what artificial intelligence can do with very little, not to mention picture and video manipulation.

It’s common to see people using technology like cell phones, laptops and surveillance cameras, and it’s increasingly becoming more common to see people using AI.

“What we’re seeing now, again, is an infant. If we saw Michael Jordan as an infant, we’re not worried about playing basketball against him, but he’s going to turn into a superstar. That’s AI,” said Alan Crowetz.

While Crowetz is the president and CEO of Info Stream, he is also an internet and cybersecurity expert.

“So where this is going to be in five or 10 years from now is absolutely terrifying,” said Crowetz. “It is stunningly good now, and if you give it a little bit of time, this thing is a real big deal.”

There are several Senate bills about artificial intelligence technology advances that will soon be up for discussion. That’s because many people and experts in the field are concerned.

“Real experts are saying this could be really, really dangerous. But again, even Elon Musk who said this is a threat to humanity is building an AI, so there are huge advantages and huge concerns with this,” said Crowetz.

In Florida alone, at least three bills are up for discussion over AI use.

One of the bills, SB 850, addresses artificial intelligence in political advertising. If passed, it would require a political ad to include a disclaimer if artificial intelligence was used to create it.

“These new regulations are designed to incur fines and punishments for people who break these rules,” said Crowetz, “so for the legit people, like a politician, or someone running for office, that works. Now, the scammers behind the scenes that use deep fakes and use AI, you know, they don’t care if there’s a punishment because you’re not going to catch them.”

Another proposed bill, SB 972, would create an artificial intelligence advisory council to create a statewide uniform policy on public and private AI use.

“It’s changing the world, but that’s why we’re concerned about laws. We’re concerned about ethics. We’re concerned about the risk, but again, the positives are uncountable,” said Crowetz.

And all those bills will be up for legislative discussion once the 2024 session starts on Jan. 9.

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