Study: Florida poorly positioned to win the AI race

3D render AI artificial intelligence technology CPU central processor unit chipset on the printed circuit board for electronic and technology concept select focus shallow depth of field

If artificial intelligence is the wave of the future, the Sunshine State needs to make up some ground.

This is the conclusion of a report from Brainly that incorporates data from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics and draws a sobering conclusion about Florida, ranking it 35th of all states in being prepared to lead on AI.

With 11.3% of businesses using AI (sixth overall in the United States), Florida is finding ways to monetize the technology.

But even with 11 AI jobs per 1,000 workers (21st overall), infrastructure and education aren’t keeping up.

For example, only 2.3% of high school students take computer science. Only 10 states are worse by that metric.

The state is 35th when it comes to AI-related degrees for people aged 20 to 24.

Meanwhile, just 56.8% of homes have “fast internet,” good for 30th overall.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has given mixed signals when it comes to preparing for the inevitability of AI.

While he has embraced artificial intelligence for his Department of Government Efficiency audits of local budgets, DeSantis just vetoed legislation that would have required a report on how AI and automation are affecting the Florida workforce, on the grounds that “such a report, to the extent it has value, would likely be obsolete by the time it was published” later this year.

He also worries about the technology.

“It’s one thing to use technology to enhance the human experience, but it’s another thing to have technology supplant the human experience and we’re going to be working in Florida to develop a coherent approach to this. It’s rapidly changing,” DeSantis said Monday.

The Governor added that the state “can’t put our head in the sand and just say, ‘we’re not going to deal with AI at all,’ because it is becoming a fact of life. But we can’t just turn the reins over to a bunch of tech overlords. That doesn’t work. That ultimately isn’t going to be what’s best. So, you know, you have different things with respect to that, that we’re going to really have to start to do.”