{"id":231043,"date":"2026-04-14T10:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231043\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:26:07","slug":"florida-attorney-general-talks-dei-artificial-intelligence-regulations-at-usf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231043\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Attorney General talks DEI, artificial intelligence regulations at USF"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (left) was April\u2019s Debate-A-Bull speaker, which was held at the Patel College of Global Sustainability on Friday. ORACLE PHOTO\/NOAH VINSKY<\/p>\n

USF hosted Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in the Patel College of Global Sustainability for a final Debate-A-Bull<\/a> speaker event on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Institute of Public Policy and Leadership hosts the Debate-A-Bull speaker series, which brings leaders to campus for monthly events that promote \u201cacademic inquiry and civic engagement,\u201d according to USF.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

At USF, Uthmeier called for nationwide artificial intelligence regulations while ramping up his criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion policies during a 90-minute chat moderated by university Trustee Charbel Barakat.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Uthmeier as the Florida Attorney General<\/a> in February 2025, after serving as his Chief of Staff<\/a> from October 2021 to August 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As attorney general, Uthmeier is responsible for protecting residents from fraud and enforcing the state\u2019s antitrust laws, including those against price gouging and monopolization, according to the Attorney General\u2019s office<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uthmeier also oversees the Office of Statewide Persecution<\/a>, which prosecutes crimes like gang activity and drug trafficking, according to the Attorney General\u2019s office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier is running to continue serving as Attorney General during Florida\u2019s gubernatorial election on Nov. 3. He\u2019ll face off against private-sector attorney Steven Leskovich in August\u2019s Republican primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: USF\u2019s Taryn Sabia throws hat in for 2027 Tampa mayoral race<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence<\/p>\n

Uthmeier said he\u2019s worried about the rapid advancement of AI in the U.S. military, adding that it\u2019s the government\u2019s responsibility to regulate corporations creating AI models.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have broad powers to protect consumers, litigate on behalf of the state, both in a civil and criminal context,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cWe certainly will do that wherever it\u2019s necessary to protect our people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. military used Claude, an AI model from the company Anthropic<\/a>, in its operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro in January, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pentagon labeled Anthropic a \u201cnational security risk\u201d in March after its CEO raised concerns over the use of fully autonomous weapons, according to the Associated Press<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[AI] does present some pretty serious questions that relate to the existence of mankind,\u201d he said. \u201cTechnology and innovation is supposed to support and advance mankind, not hinder it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s office also launched an investigation<\/a> into OpenAI, ChatGPT\u2019s parent company, over safety and national security concerns on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier said in a video posted on X<\/a> that he\u2019s investigating ChatGPT\u2019s assistance in last year\u2019s mass shooting<\/a> at Florida State University that left two dead and six injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shooter, Phoenix Ikner, asked ChatGPT several prompts before the attack \u2014 including how to take the safety off his shotgun and what FSU\u2019s most crowded building is, according to the Florida Phoenix<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uthemier compared AI to \u201cFrankenstein\u201d and said AI companies should be held accountable for any harm their products cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you create a monster and let it go free and it takes lives, are you not someone responsible?\u201d Uthemeier said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Proposed state flag pledge<\/p>\n

Uthemeier said he\u2019s working to introduce a pledge to the state flag as his contribution to Florida\u2019s America250<\/a> celebration, a bipartisan initiative for the U.S\u2019s 250th anniversary this July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He shared an initial draft of the pledge for the first time on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI pledge to thee, oh state that\u2019s free, under God for family, a tribute to our noble fight, oh flag adorned in red and white,\u201d Uthmeier said.<\/p>\n

Seventeen U.S. states have pledges to their state flags, according to the Portland Flag Association<\/a>. Florida is the only one of the 11 states that seceded during the U.S. Civil War without a state flag pledge.<\/p>\n

Related: USF St. Pete students continue push to reinstate multicultural flags<\/a><\/p>\n

Diversity, equity and inclusion\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uthmeier has criticized<\/a> DEI policies during his time in office and announced a lawsuit<\/a> against Starbucks in December over its implementation of \u201crace-based quotas\u201d in hiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said his next target is the Rooney Rule, an NFL policy that rewards teams with draft picks for interviewing minority candidates for coaching and management roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rooney Rule<\/a> was established in 2003, and requires NFL teams to interview at least two minority candidates for vacant head coach, general manager and coordinator positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uthmeier sent a letter<\/a> to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on March 25 demanding that the league no longer enforce the Rooney Rule, calling it \u201cblatant sex and race discrimination.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, Goodell said at a news conference on March 31 that he has no plans to eliminate the Rooney Rule, according to AP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier said the NFL is \u201cflagrantly\u201d violating state laws, and therefore, it\u2019s important that he is targeting the association.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people should be hired and advanced based on their merit,\u201d Uthmeier said on Friday. \u201cThe right person for the job is the right person that should be hired. The fans out there, they care more about the color of the jersey than they do the color of the skin of the coach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (left) was April\u2019s Debate-A-Bull speaker, which was held at the Patel College of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-231043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}