{"id":396629,"date":"2026-09-11T06:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396629\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T06:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:56:10","slug":"byron-donalds-doubles-down-on-ai-data-centers-at-ucf-turning-point-event-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396629\/","title":{"rendered":"Byron Donalds doubles down on AI data centers at UCF Turning Point event \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Byron Donalds took questions from UCF\u2019s Turning Point chapter Thursday on the anniversary of the assassination of the group\u2019s founder, Charlie Kirk, delving into key issues in his race against Democrat David Jolly while focusing heavily on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Donalds, R-Naples, who did not take questions from reporters following the event, reiterated his support for building AI infrastructure, including new data centers.<\/a><\/p>\n

The AI industry, and data centers in particular, has been subject to nationwide public backlash by environmentalists worried about sapping natural resources to power these facilities, ethicists alarmed by its potential uses and communities concerned it will lead to soaring utility bills hoisted onto consumers.<\/p>\n

The topic, broached by a student questioner, also came a day after an engineer at tech company Anthropic issued a lengthy social media post saying AI companies are \u201cgambling with our lives.\u201d Donalds told students he believes AI could be used as a \u201cforce multiplier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take human beings out of the loop, I think that\u2019s the danger zone that the former Anthropic employee is talking about,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom a regulatory standpoint, I think there\u2019s a couple things that do need to happen. [Gov. Ron DeSantis], through his talk on the \u2018AI Bill of Rights,\u2019 I think that\u2019s important. We also want to make sure young kids are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donalds, backed by the pro-AI lobby and derided by Jolly as \u201cData Center Donalds,\u201d added that Florida law allows local governments to decide whether to build data centers in their community while noting the Florida Public Service Commission, the top utility regulator, \u201ccannot allow the utility rates to go up because of a hyperscale data center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cities and counties across Florida, including Lake County in Central Florida, have either paused or outright banned permits for new data centers, with more exploring those possibilities.<\/p>\n

When asked about whether tech industry backing is affecting his support for building the facilities in Florida, he added said that it \u201chas no bearing on my decisions\u201d and that he has been consistent in his ideas should he become Florida\u2019s next governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we\u2019ve raised a lot of money, not just from those interests but, quite frankly, a lot of interests,\u201d Donalds said. \u201c\u2026 To be blunt, you know what it allows me to do? Not to really care about what any one interest wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being the heavy favorite to succeed DeSantis as governor, a Change Research poll released Thursday<\/a> warned of an \u201cemerging Florida blue wave,\u201d handing the edge to Jolly with 47% support from likely voters vs 44% for Donalds. The poll appears to mirror an early finding by the Cook Political Report shifting the race from \u201csolidly\u201d to \u201clikely\u201d Republican.<\/p>\n

A Democratic candidate has not won the governor\u2019s race since Gov. Lawton Chiles won reelection in 1994. Jolly, a former Republican congressman from St. Petersburg, later became an independent and then a Democrat before launching his campaign.<\/p>\n

Donalds\u2019 UCF appearance Thursday was also on the anniversary of Kirk\u2019s assassination, who founded and helmed Turning Point USA until his murder last year in Utah. The organization is now run by his widow, Erika Kirk.<\/p>\n

Donalds remembered Kirk, a controversial commentator who catered to young conservatives, as a personal friend whom he met at an event two years ago. His death sparked both outrage among his allies, much-publicized firings over social media posts, and a flurry of AI-generated images and memes mocking his death.<\/p>\n

A rising star in Republican politics in the Trump era, Donalds remembered Kirk as a caring man who \u201cactually got more excited about the disagreements than he did about the agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell you he\u2019s more missed today than people realize,\u201d Donalds said. \u201cHe was definitely one of a kind. He was a one of one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOP gubernatorial hopeful Byron Donalds took questions from UCF\u2019s Turning Point chapter Thursday on the anniversary of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[113,2811,28,114,115,139,141,140,99,554,109],"class_list":["post-396629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-education","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396629","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=396629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}