# Northwest Florida lawmakers, business leaders weigh in on AI power and safety - WEAR-TV

*Источник: WEAR-TV*
*Дата: 2026-09-14*
*Язык: en*

**Кратко:** Northwest Florida lawmakers, business leaders weigh in on AI power and safety
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Northwest Florida lawmakers and business leaders are weighing in on the power of artificial intelligence.

Northwest Florida lawmakers, business leaders weigh in on AI power and safety
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Northwest Florida lawmakers and business leaders are weighing in on the power of artificial intelligence.
These local leaders are hearing the warnings from top AI executives.
Those WEAR News spoke with agree AI can be a great tool, but these conversations about safety are incredibly important.
"I think AI, if you expect Washington to be the creator of the solution, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed," Congressman Jimmy Patronis said.
"So, you know, my concern is get rid of these crazy legal protectants they've gotten place, let the AI companies, let Big Tech, let them be like adults and have to have some responsibility for the craziness that they allow in their content to be developed," he said.
Patronis is pushing for accountability for Big Tech. In January, he introduced a bill called the "Protect Act." It would remove Section 230 of the "Communications Decency Act."
It currently shields social media companies from legal responsibility for content posted by users. Patronis argues that protection has created an unsafe environment online, especially for children.
"To me, this is the simplest, cleanest way in order to empower parents, to empower our state government, in order to wrap their arms around what's taking place," Patronis said. "We've got an emerging technology that is fantastic. It's going to develop cures for the greatest diseases that we never thought ever could be cured, but unfortunately there's a lot of unknowns, and I'm worried about our kids."
Chief Executive Officer Emeritus of Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), Kenneth M. Ford, shared the following remarks as it pertains to AI regulations:
I am skeptical of broad government regulation of artificial intelligence, particularly when it is driven by exaggerated or poorly understood claims about the technology and its risks. AI is a rapidly evolving, general-purpose technology, and government is rarely well equipped to anticipate its trajectory or regulate it intelligently at that level of abstraction. Too much of the debate anthropomorphizes AI systems and treats speculative future dangers as established facts. Government certainly has a role where AI creates demonstrable risks in areas such as medicine, critical infrastructure, national security, finance, or consumer protection, but those risks are better addressed through appropriate domain-specific laws and standards. The guiding principle should be to regulate identifiable harms and high-risk applications, not “AI” itself, while maintaining considerable humility about both the technology’s future and the unintended consequences of premature regulation.
There is also a strategic dimension. The United States is competing intensely with China, which is unlikely to accept constraints it believes would put it at a disadvantage simply because we impose them on ourselves. Regulations that materially slow U.S. progress may do little to reduce global AI risks while shifting technological leadership—and influence over how AI develops—toward countries whose values and interests differ from our own.
Jenni Arnold is founder of "Human Kind Intelligence." She's a consultant, who helps train people on how to use AI safely and effectively.
"I think as humans and humanity, we need to have these conversations," Arnold said. "We need to be talking about it, how is it going to affect our lives? How do we want to use it, so that we can improve our lives, improve our children's lives. Nobody wants the 'Terminator' situation."
Arnold says she also recommends talking about AI safety with your kids can also be helpful.

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