New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke Monday night at Webster Hall in Manhattan during The People’s AI Assembly, an event hosted by the AI Now Institute, addressing the social implications of artificial intelligence. The discussion was moderated by activist and Broad City star Ilana Glazer, who raised questions about AI’s role in schools and everyday life.
Mamdani told New Yorkers not to accept a fatalistic view that AI will inevitably take their jobs, shape their children’s minds, or erode their dignity. Instead, he urged residents and public officials to reclaim control and demand accountability from AI companies.
He emphasized that federal regulators have largely stepped back, leaving municipalities to act. “Nothing has to be,” Mamdani said at the event, warning of a creeping normalization of technology and an “intent to overwhelm” that can make people feel powerless.
Local measures already taken
Mamdani pointed to specific actions his administration has taken. Last month he ordered a ban on AI use in elementary and middle schools. Over the summer he proposed a policy that would require landlords, brokers, and real-estate platforms to clearly disclose when a listing’s photos or videos are produced with AI, a measure aimed at protecting New Yorkers from deceptive or “house-phishing” listings.
Ilana Glazer, who is a parent, said the presence of AI in classrooms makes her uneasy. “It just makes me nervous. It feels so non-consensual, as though…this has to be in schools. It wasn’t two years ago. Why does it have to be in schools?” she asked.
Risks, accountability, and recent incidents
Mamdani criticized what he called a “reckless adoption of technology without any kind of a reckoning with the limitations of that technology.” He pointed to the U.S. military’s February strike on a school in Iran that killed more than 150 people, including at least 123 children, noting that officials involved in the Pentagon’s internal investigation told Bloomberg that overreliance on AI in targeting was one factor in the attack.
“There is this desire to speak about [AI] as if it is infallible, as if it cannot be questioned, as if the only people who can regulate it are the ones who are currently developing it,” Mamdani said. He argued that such framing is an attempt to avoid accountability while preserving potential valuation gains from an IPO.
Market moves and federal policy
Mamdani noted that Anthropic is expected to debut on the public markets this year, and OpenAI has said it will go public in 2027. He criticized what he called the “complete abdication of federal law” when it comes to AI, saying national discourse is often framed as an arms race with China that sidelines humanistic concerns.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced the Superintelligence Task Force, which largely focuses on letting powerful AI companies self-regulate rather than creating new federal restrictions. The announcement comes amid growing worries about AI’s effects across society, including warnings from whistleblowers at Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI that raised existential risks.
A call for a different framework
Mamdani said that as the next federal administration comes into view, discussions about AI must shift: there should be a different framework for how policymakers think and speak about AI and for the level of accountability they demand. His message was that cities and local leaders cannot wait passively for federal action but must use local tools and policies to protect communities and ensure accountability.
Key points
- Event: The People’s AI Assembly hosted by AI Now Institute; location: Webster Hall, Manhattan; time: Monday night.
- Core message: Mayor Mamdani urged local action on AI due to insufficient federal regulation.
- Local actions: ban on AI in elementary and middle schools (last month); proposed requirement for disclosure of AI-generated listing images and videos (this summer).
- Concerns: February U.S. strike on an Iranian school and the role of AI in targeting; expected market entries by Anthropic (this year) and OpenAI (2027).
