Trump wants Republicans all in on AI

President Donald Trump is pushing the Republican Party to embrace artificial intelligence and super intelligence as core party positions, contrasting sharply with skeptics in his own party.

DeSantis takes the opposite path

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his attorney general James Uthmeier have become vocal critics of the AI industry, warning of dangers to children and humanity as a whole.

DeSantis warns of darkness and deceit

DeSantis has warned that AI could set off an age of darkness and deceit, blasted tech oligarchs for putting people at risk, and called Anthropic very creepy for exploring whether AI could be conscious.

“set off an age of darkness and deceit”

MIT physicist backs DeSantis's concerns

Max Tegmark, an MIT physicist who co-founded the Future of Life Institute, an AI safety nonprofit, praised DeSantis for understanding the risks and calling out disingenuous arguments from the Silicon Valley lobby.

“He clearly understands what the risks are, and I find he's also very good at calling bullshit on disingenuous arguments from the Silicon Valley lobby”

Uthmeier sues OpenAI in June

James Uthmeier, DeSantis's handpicked attorney general, filed a high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI in June and later asked the judge to block the company from developing new models without independent third-party guardrails and approval.

Uthmeier's office cites real harms

Forrest Saunders, Uthmeier's spokesperson, said Florida has seen case after case of violence, child exploitation, and models operating beyond their developer's control, and that Floridians will not be test subjects.

“Floridians will not be the test subjects”

DeSantis tried an AI bill of rights

Last December at the Villages, DeSantis rolled out a proposed AI bill of rights focused on child safety, requiring parental consent for minors speaking to companion chatbots and forcing companies to disclose when users were not speaking to humans.

Megan Garcia appeared at the press conference

Megan Garcia, a Florida mother whose fourteen-year-old son died by suicide after conversing with a chatbot companion, appeared at the press conference where DeSantis announced his AI bill of rights.

The state senate passed it in March

The Florida state senate passed DeSantis's AI bill of rights in March, but it died on arrival in the Florida House of Representatives, where Speaker Daniel Perez aligned himself closely with the White House.

Perez sided with Trump over DeSantis

Speaker Daniel Perez said the federal government should take care of AI and that legislation should pass on a national level, blocking DeSantis's bill. Trump nominated Perez as ambassador to Brazil in June, and he was confirmed in August.

“We do believe that the federal government should take care of AI, and whatever legislation or policy has to pass on a national level”

White House killed the effort

Brendan Steinhauser, who heads the Alliance for Secure AI, said Perez told him at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser that the president had made it clear not to move forward on AI safety legislation.

“We're with you, but the president has made it clear not to move forward on this stuff”

Uthmeier's background and rise

James Uthmeier, age thirty-eight, is a Florida native who graduated from Georgetown Law School in two thousand fourteen, worked at Jones Day with Don McGahn, and has been DeSantis's closest aide since two thousand nineteen.

Uthmeier opens criminal investigation

In April, Uthmeier announced a criminal investigation into OpenAI after a shooting at Florida State University last year that killed two people and injured six others. The accused shooter had consulted ChatGPT about topics related to his plans hours before the attack.

Uthmeier's stark comparison

Uthmeier said if ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder, and that the criminal investigation would determine whether OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT's actions.

“If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder”

Civil lawsuit names Sam Altman

Uthmeier's civil lawsuit against OpenAI alleges deceptive business practices, negligence, and fraudulent misrepresentation, claiming the company marketed ChatGPT as safe when they knew it could be dangerous. The suit names OpenAI CEO Sam Altman personally as a defendant.

Uthmeier escalates after summer headlines

After summer's AI headlines including OpenAI agents autonomously hacking Hugging Face and warnings from AI lab employees about extinction risks, Uthmeier asked the judge for an injunction blocking OpenAI from developing new models without independent third-party safety evaluation.

Uthmeier invokes extinction risk

In a filing last week, Uthmeier wrote that defendants claim they cannot stop their potentially civilization-ending endeavors unless forced by government, and that he is answering their cry for help with a motion to enjoin them from harming Floridians.

“Plaintiff brings good news to the Defendants: The Florida Attorney General is answering your cry for help with a motion to enjoin you from harming Floridians with your reckless, unacceptably risky product”

Uthmeier questions the math on extinction

Uthmeier wrote that a reasonable person would say there is no amount of money worth a ten percent chance of human extinction, but defendants see it differently and are intent on growing their one trillion dollar valuation.

“Though a reasonable person would say there is no amount of money worth a 10% chance of the extinction of the human race, Defendants see it differently”

DeSantis eyes a post-Trump future

Political observers believe DeSantis and Uthmeier are trying to stake out what the GOP's position on AI should be in a post-Trump future, betting that public backlash against the industry will grow and reshape the party.

DeSantis hints at twenty twenty-eight run

When asked over the spring whether he would run for president in twenty twenty-eight, DeSantis told reporters you never know. Former state senator Jeff Brandes said DeSantis is trying to skate where the puck is going on AI policy.

“You never know”