Politicians love to rail against the very things they secretly depend on.
Ron DeSantis just became the latest example.
And Ron DeSantis just got caught using the one technology that he keeps calling dangerous.
DeSantis builds career attacking Big Tech and AI
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has spent months positioning himself as AI's biggest critic in conservative politics.
He's warned repeatedly that artificial intelligence poses the "biggest issue" facing American society and the economy.¹
DeSantis predicted "major, major upheavals in jobs" as AI advances and cautioned against letting America "turn over our humanity to artificial intelligence."²
DeSantis went after tech companies for wanting to "subordinate" American freedoms to their "different agenda."³
He called them "woke Silicon Valley oligarchs" controlling what information Americans can access.⁴
https://twitter.com/ReOpenChris/status/1987945152900399110?s=20
And he hammered Mark Zuckerberg's data center — "as big as Manhattan," DeSantis said — for jacking up electricity bills for regular Floridians.⁵
DeSantis sold himself as the conservative crusader protecting working Americans from Big Tech overreach.
Except there's one massive problem.
Florida DOGE caught red-handed depending on AI
While DeSantis was busy attacking artificial intelligence, his own government efficiency operation was completely dependent on it.
The Florida Department of Government Efficiency task force has been using AI from Anthropic to audit local government spending across the state.⁶
That's right — DeSantis's team was using the exact technology he keeps warning Florida about.
Things got really awkward in October when Anthropic AI shut down the Florida DOGE team's accounts without warning.⁷
The Florida DOGE team rushed to social media to complain, posting that the ban came "as Florida DOGE has used AI to augment our efforts to identify wasteful spending and woke DEI initiatives."⁸
And here's the kicker — in that same post, they invoked DeSantis's own words, writing: "@GovRonDeSantis has been spot on from the beginning—we can't allow woke Silicon Valley oligarchs to control the information we access."⁹
Read that again.
DeSantis's team complained about "woke Silicon Valley oligarchs" controlling their access to information while simultaneously admitting they'd been using that same company's AI for their government work.
https://twitter.com/CaseyDeSantis/status/1972640563066536173?s=20
The hypocrisy speaks for itself
Anthropic later clarified the account suspension had nothing to do with politics — Florida DOGE was simply sharing login credentials among too many people.¹⁰
But that explanation only makes things worse for DeSantis.
His team wasn't just occasionally dabbling with AI technology.
They were so dependent on it that multiple government employees needed shared access to keep their operation running.
This is the same governor who's been warning that AI threatens to "supplant the human experience" and questioning whether we even need humans "to think."¹¹
Yet when it came time to actually audit government waste and find efficiencies, DeSantis's own team immediately turned to the very AI systems he keeps attacking.
They couldn't do the job without it.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia has been touring the state highlighting government bloat while leaning heavily on AI analysis to make his case.¹²
DeSantis himself has bragged about using AI to "help discover wasteful spending" in Florida's cities and counties.¹³
The governor even vetoed a bill that would have studied AI's impact on Florida's workforce, claiming the study would be "obsolete" by the time it was released because AI technology moves so fast.¹⁴
So AI moves too fast to study its employment impacts, but it's perfectly fine to use for government audits?
That's quite the convenient distinction.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/1989309864841978324?s=20
DeSantis has positioned himself as the conservative warrior fighting against technological overreach and protecting the "human experience" from Silicon Valley elites.
But when the rubber meets the road, he's just another politician who needs Big Tech to make his agenda work.
The whole episode exposes what many conservatives suspected all along — a lot of the anti-tech rhetoric from Republicans is pure theater.
They'll bash AI and Big Tech companies to win populist points with voters who distrust Silicon Valley.
Then they'll turn around and use those exact same technologies the moment they need them.
DeSantis can't credibly warn about the dangers of AI while his own team crashes and burns the moment their AI access gets temporarily suspended.
The message from Florida's governor is clear: AI is dangerous for you, but essential for me.
¹ Gray Rohrer, "DeSantis denounces AI even as state depends on it," USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida, November 14, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ "Florida DOGE banned from AI company," WFLA, October 23, 2025.
⁵ A.G. Gancarski, "Ron DeSantis' latest AI warning: Big Tech wants your power, water," Florida Politics, September 27, 2025.
⁶ Gray Rohrer, "DeSantis denounces AI even as state depends on it," USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida, November 14, 2025.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ "AI firm Anthropic bans Florida DOGE Team account without warning," Florida's Voice, October 24, 2025.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Gray Rohrer, "DeSantis denounces AI even as state depends on it," USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida, November 14, 2025.
¹¹ "DeSantis formulating AI approach, calls it society's 'biggest issue'," Florida Phoenix, July 28, 2025.
¹² "AI firm Anthropic bans Florida DOGE Team account without warning," Florida's Voice, October 24, 2025.
¹³ "DeSantis readies AI policies, worries technology could disrupt Florida jobs," Sun Sentinel, July 28, 2025.
¹⁴ Gray Rohrer, "DeSantis denounces AI even as state depends on it," USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida, November 14, 2025.
