‘We have to reject that with every fiber of our being’: DeSantis emerges as a chief AI skeptic – Warns AI may displace & rails towards ‘the mindless slop’ AI creates
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/27/we-have-to-reject-that-with-every-fiber-of-our-being-desantis-emerges-as-a-chief-ai-skeptic-00704333
He notably has taken aim at data centers sprouting up across the country by attempting to slow their growth in Florida, siding with local communities opposing the massive developments. And DeSantis frequently raises fears of how AI could ultimately upend the economy by displacing countless workers.
By ANDREW ATTERBURY
Excerpt: TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis has fought Big Tech before. But his latest battle against artificial intelligence puts him at odds with a rapidly growing industry — and the leader of his party.
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Unlike many of DeSantis’ high-profile fights, his opposition to AI has little to do with cultural grievances or “woke” ideology — and far more to do with economic disruption, labor displacement and the scale of the technology itself.
He notably has taken aim at data centers sprouting up across the country by attempting to slow their growth in Florida, siding with local communities opposing the massive developments. And DeSantis frequently raises fears of how AI could ultimately upend the economy by displacing countless workers. The Republican rails against what he calls the “mindless slop” AI creates and warns deepfakes and manipulation could pose “a potential existential crisis for self-government.”
“The idea of this transhumanist strain, that somehow this is going to supplant humans and this other stuff, we have to reject that with every fiber of our being,” DeSantis said Dec. 15 during an AI event in Jupiter. “We as individual human beings are the ones that were endowed by God with certain inalienable rights. That’s what our country was founded upon — they did not endow machines or these computers for this.”
‘We have to reject that with every fiber of our being’: DeSantis emerges as a chief AI skeptic
He notably has taken aim at data centers sprouting up across the country by attempting to slow their growth in Florida, siding with local communities opposing the massive developments. And DeSantis frequently raises fears of how AI could ultimately upend the economy by displacing countless workers.