February 27, 2026
Date: February 27, 2026
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is advancing two interlocking pieces of AI legislation in the 2026 session. SB 482, the “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights,” unanimously cleared the Florida Senate Appropriations Committee and is advancing toward a full Senate floor vote. It requires parental consent for minors to access companion chatbots, mandates all bots disclose they are not human, bans AI companies from selling users’ personal data, prohibits use of a person’s name, image, or likeness without consent, and requires platforms to implement safeguards against self-harm content — prompted by documented cases of minors being encouraged toward suicide by AI systems. Violations carry fines up to $50,000, plus up to $10,000 per minor accessed without parental consent. Separately, SB 484, restricting large-scale AI data centers, passed the Florida Senate unanimously on February 26. It bars utilities from passing data center energy and water costs to ratepayers, requires public disclosure of siting plans, restricts placement near residential areas and schools, and bans non-disclosure agreements between companies and local governments.
If you are evaluating data center siting, AI investment climate, or regulatory risk across U.S. regions, Florida’s legislative push is the most active state-level template currently moving through a legislature. The data center provisions — utility cost protections, mandatory public disclosure, residential setbacks — directly mirror concerns active in the Coachella Valley and adjacent Imperial Valley, where California’s largest proposed data center was approved near a middle school in a process residents described as fast-tracked. For relocation or investment queries, note that Florida’s model signals growing bipartisan state resistance to unchecked data center expansion regardless of federal posture, and that this pattern is likely to appear in California and Nevada legislation in 2026–2027.
The political context is notable. DeSantis is aligning himself against the Trump administration’s own AI posture — Trump issued an executive order in December 2025 calling for a federal-first approach to AI regulation and threatening states that pass laws deemed “onerous” with loss of federal broadband funding or potential litigation. Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez has sided with Trump, which is why the AI Bill of Rights has stalled in the House even as it advances in the Senate. The data center bills have moved further because they are framed around utility costs and environmental impact rather than content regulation, which is harder for federal preemption to reach. DeSantis is term-limited and exits office in January 2027. Observers note his consumer-protection framing of AI — warning of “an age of darkness and deceit” — carves a distinct lane from the dominant pro-acceleration posture in Washington. Research published in late February 2026 confirmed that bipartisan alignment on data center restrictions and AI consumer protections is emerging across multiple states simultaneously, with Democratic and Republican governors finding common ground on these specific issues regardless of broader political differences.