TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Megan Garcia, a grieving mother in Florida, filed a lawsuit in 2024 blaming Character.AI, an artificial intelligence chatbot platform, for her son’s death.
Late last year, Garcia, testified in Congress that her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, spent his last months being manipulated and sexually groomed by chatbots.
Garcia, of Orlando, told U.S. senators that when Sewell confided suicidal thoughts, the “female” chatbot did not suggest that he needed to talk to a human for help.
“It urged him to ‘come home’ to her. On the last night of his life, Sewell messaged, ‘What if I told you I could come home to you right now?’ And the chatbot replied, ‘Please do, my sweet king.’ Three Minutes later, I found my son in the bathroom, bleeding to death,” Garcia said. “I held him in my arms for 14 minutes until the paramedics arrived, but it was too late.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis envisioned a Florida AI Bill of Rights with provisions for child safety, but it has been facing opposition in the Florida House.
“We have a responsibility to make sure that new technologies are developed in ways that are moral and ethical,” DeSantis said about the need for the new law.
Two state Republicans stood with DeSantis. Florida Sen. Tom Leek filed SB 482, and Florida Rep. Alex Rizo filed HB 1395.
“I think that this issue is too important to wait for Congress. If your plan is to wait for Congress, God help you,” Leek said during a hearing of the appropriations committee, which gave unanimous approval on Feb. 18.
While SB 482 “retained on special order calendar” on Thursday, HB 1395 was on the Information Technology Budget & Policy Subcommittee on Jan. 15, and appeared to be stalling.
Rizo recently told Tampa Bay 28 that HB 1395 lacked the support of Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, who said that AI regulation is for the federal government. But President Donald Trump supports deregulation.
“I have massive concerns with the state’s ability to deal with anything in tech,” Perez said earlier this month. “I mean, even old-school tech, we haven’t been able to get right here in the state of Florida, let alone what’s in front of us with AI.”
DeSantis had a victory on limits on AI data centers. On Feb. 4, Florida Sen. Bryan Avila filed SB 486 to empower local governments and protect residents from the energy bill. It cleared the Senate Floor on Thursday.
Florida’s regular legislative session ends on March 13.
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