Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Warns That AI Could Make Some Jobs Obsolete, Touts Education Record

Forbes Breaking News

5 months ago

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) touted his education record.

Transcript

00:00the right thing. Now, I am always reminding people that Florida has been ranked number one economy

00:06in the U.S. three years in a row by CNBC. We've been ranked number one overall for education

00:17some years. Some years we're in the top two or three, four, five, but we're always near the top

00:23in those. We're number one higher education, nine straight years, number one in education freedom,

00:28number one for parental involvement in education, and on and on it goes. And we've done successful

00:35reforms like the progress monitoring, like a lot of the students and parents and teachers

00:40got frustrated. I mean, everyone, most people acknowledge you got to have measurements. You got

00:46to know whether people, whether our kids are actually learning things, how schools are performing.

00:51So there's got to be some type of way to evaluate that. When you had a one-year high-stakes end-of-year

00:56test, first of all, they cram for the test. What I found as a student, when you cram for

01:01a test, then you end up forgetting it once you take the test. Like if you just methodically

01:07learn, then it stays with you a little bit longer. So it created this impetus to do this

01:11end-of-year test. But then what happens is if a student was deficient in that somehow, well,

01:15they're on summer vacation. So how are you going to remedy that? Well, progress monitoring, periodic

01:20assessments throughout the year. The teacher, the student, the parent, they can get together

01:26and remedy when students aren't doing it. And what we found is steady progress for our students

01:31throughout the school year. And the metrics have been really, really strong. So we're, you

01:36know, we're proud of that. We're also proud of championing things that shouldn't really

01:40need to be a champion. It should just be something that everyone wants to do. But it's kind of fallen

01:45out of favor, our emphasis on promoting American civics. And we've been doing that for years.

01:50I think it's very important leading into next year, which is going to be the 250th anniversary

01:55of the Declaration of Independence. And making sure our students, you know, there's so much

02:01stuff that goes on post-secondary. We obviously have our university system we're proud of, but

02:09I think we all know, you know, there are universities throughout this country that are printing degrees

02:14that are not worth the paper it's printed on. And students are going into debt for that. That's

02:18why we've promoted apprenticeships, trade schools, all these other things that are going to be there.

02:24And there's going to be a wide variety of ways that different students go once they leave our K-12

02:29system. But all of them will be called upon to exercise the duty of American citizenship. And they

02:37need a foundation so that they can make sense of what's going on around them and be active citizens

02:43and have a good understanding of what the foundations of the country represent. So we have the civics

02:50and debate, the debate initiative, which is really blown up. It's been really, really fantastic.

02:56We also have the course that the instructors can go through. They get a $3,000 bonus. And they're

03:01really learning things that are really meaningful and are very timeless. So I'm proud of that.

03:08We are also looking at, and this is going to be something that is not going to be an issue

03:15that's going to go away, is, you know, how are we preparing students for the world as it's

03:21developing? You know, if we were here 10 years ago, 15 years ago, everyone would say, well,

03:26you know, people need to code and do this and do that. And many did. And many have done okay.

03:33I would say vocational education 10, 15 years ago in a lot of places was frowned upon. They said,

03:40you're not going to be able to do as well. You got to go to a traditional four-year college.

03:43And I think what we're finding now with the rise of artificial intelligence is some of those things,

03:49particularly on the lower level with computer coding, some of those are just being going to

03:53be rendered obsolete because it's going to be done by AI. Some of these white-collar jobs where people

03:59told you go to college and do that, those could end up being obsolete. A lot of the trade stuff,

04:06I think, is going to be more valuable than ever to have those skills. So we're just, we're entering

04:11a period of, I think, major flux of how the economy works. And look, I've been, you know, very clear.

04:19My role as governor is to protect the well-being of the people of the state. It's not to allow

04:25computers to supplant the well-being of the people of the state. Artificial intelligence,

04:31some people are developing. It has a role, but it can't substitute for our responsibility to think

04:36for ourselves as human beings. And it's never going to be able to get to the point where it can reason

04:42as well as a human being. I know people try to say it will. I just, I don't think, first of all,

04:46I see a lot of errors with artificial intelligence on some of this stuff. But it is going to be something

04:52that's going to be a more and more significant part of our economy going forward. So how are we

04:58going to respond? I think we've got to be very nimble in how we respond, both at the primary

05:04and secondary, but also post-secondary, because I think some of the folks have been put into certain

05:12pipelines over the years. And I think some of those pipelines, you know, may end up being shut off

05:18by artificial intelligence, overwhelming some of this stuff. So it's a fundamental issue for our

05:23time. We want to address it in ways that really protect the people of the state's ability to work

05:31hard and make the most of their own lives. I don't want to see this overtake reason, and I certainly

05:37don't want to see it impinging on people's freedom. We have the ability as policymakers to add protections

05:44where we need. You know, they were trying in Washington to say states couldn't do anything

05:49on artificial intelligence. I mean, we just did with the legislature, we did a bill a few months ago,

05:55where they were taking the likeness of this high school girl and putting her into pornographic videos.

06:03And it's like, shouldn't there be? I mean, you know, there should be some recourse to that.

06:07Very traumatic experience. I think that's appropriate that we provided protections there. And there were folks

06:13in Washington that didn't want us to be able to do anything with it. So it's going to continue

06:17to be an important issue. And just please know we're thinking very, very deeply about how we can

06:23kind of protect people and make sure people are able to make the most of their own lives with us.

06:28But it is going to cause disruption. Now we have done a lot with supporting the rights of parents.

06:36We've done a lot with man just having schools open when many places were not having them open back

06:41during the COVID-19 pandemic. We've also worked hard on expanding educational choice, both within

06:48school districts, within our charter system, and even with with private scholarships and parents.

06:54I don't think there's any state in the country where you're more empowered to make great education

06:59choices for your kids as you are in the free state of Florida. We're proud of that. We're happy to do that.

07:05We're happy to do that.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Warns That AI Could Make Some Jobs Obsolete, Touts Education Record

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