Jay Collins wants you to believe he’ll save Florida from AI data centers, but he was one of their biggest booster

Florida gubernatorial candidate Jay Collins, the current Lieutenant Governor and former state Senator, has proposed strict regulations on artificial intelligence data centers and is attacking the front-runner in the race, Byron Donalds, over the issue.

But Collins’ stance now on data centers is different than it was when he served in the Legislature, adding an air of hypocrisy to his latest attacks as he vies for relevancy in a race that increasingly looks like a one-man show.

Collins has proposed a “Florida Strong Plan,” which would heavily regulate AI data centers by requiring operators to fund their own infrastructure needs. It would also require strict reviews on water use and other environmental impacts, as well as safety features filtering content about suicide or homicide, among other requirements.

And earlier this week, Collins’ official war room account on X reposted a video unattributed to a creator bashing Donalds for, among other things, supporting AI data centers.

First, the biggest bit of irony: While the video criticizes AI data centers over water and electricity usage — painting a dystopian picture of their effects on Floridians and the state’s environment — it is clearly made by AI.

More than one commenter on the video called out the hypocrisy in posting an AI video to bash AI.

But more than that, the assertions in the video — that Collins will somehow emerge as a spandex-clad superhero to save the day from Donalds’ AI hell-scape — and his “Florida Strong Plan” to highly regulate AI are in direct contradiction to Collins’ own record.

Last year, when Collins was still serving as a state Senator, he pushed for a bill (SB 1264) that included a tax incentive for AI data centers. The bill, which was ultimately unsuccessful, included the removal of a sunset provision on tax exemptions for data centers.

Collins presented the bill, including the data centers tax exemption language, several times in the 2025 Legislative Session, each time defending data centers as an economic boon.

Speaking on March 31, 2025, in the Senate Committee on Commerce and Tourism, Collins said the continuation of tax exemptions would entice “significant investment (in) job creation to communities, both directly through the data centers and indirectly through customers they serve.”

“We’re talking about mega-watt, it’s a huge investment … and they need time to plan,” he added, referring to data center operators.

Asked how effective current incentives have been and how many data centers have been built, Collins doubled down that “there are a ton of organizations, large businesses looking to invest in our state and multiple states around the country.

“For us to be competitive they want to make sure that ultimately the landscape isn’t going to get ripped out from underneath them,” he said.

A few weeks later, Collins continued to support tax exemptions for data centers, in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development.

He explained that the bill he was running would “indefinitely” extend the tax exemptions.

“These large, hyperscale data centers are incredibly large and take a lot of time to reposition to make sure they have the market demographics before they land. It allows them time to go ahead and pick our areas in the state,” he said, adding that there were 18 potential deals for new data centers, “with significant revenue potentially behind those.”

“So even if we hit one out of three, that’s a significant investment in our future,” Collins said.

Yet his campaign reposted a video bashing AI data centers. It opens with an image of Donalds being sworn into office, and then pivots to an image of the Florida Capitol, fires burning, tents on the lawn. On screen, an image of a large data center appears with a caption, “AI data centers surge power costs.” Lights on in surrounding businesses then flicker off as ominous music plays in the background.

The video later pivots to a working-class man being arrested by a robot over “AI hate speech,” before footage showing the same man begging.

“Please don’t allow any more data centers. My electricity bill has already gone up four times and we don’t have any more clean water,” the man pleads to the AI version of Donalds.

“Get this peasant out of my office,” the digitally-created Donalds fires back, before a woman and child are shown on screen.

“Please stop, you’re hurting him,” she begs, with hands clasped in prayer as the child weeps on her shoulder. Two White men in business suits are then seen laughing at the woman and her child. She then removes a gold coin from her purse emblazoned with Collins’ name, “green beret” and a star in the center she pushes to summon Collins, who then appears as a superhero to save the day.

Collins is then shown pummeling people representing various problems, including data centers, before kicking Donalds in the mouth.

The video ends with the sound of an alarm clock and a man jumping from bed in terror.

“I had a nightmare that I didn’t vote in the Aug. 18 Republican Primary,” he declares to his concerned partner.

The video is clever. And its message is powerful.

But it’s steeped in hypocrisy that attempts to erase Collins’ actual record on data centers.

Because while whoever created this AI slop wants you to believe Collins is some sort of Captain America swooping in to save Florida from resource-draining data centers, his actual record proves he’s really a hero for their creation.

And despite being called out for it, the Collins war room has instead pinned the video to the top of its X feed.