At Webster Hall in Manhattan, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined activist and actress Ilana Glazer for a public discussion on artificial intelligence. The conversation took place during The People’s AI Assembly, an event organized by the AI Now Institute, a research group that examines AI’s societal effects. Glazer posed a series of questions about how the technology might shape everyday life in the city.
Mamdani urged residents not to accept a narrative that AI will inevitably replace jobs, infiltrate children’s minds, or erode personal dignity. He framed the situation as a call for citizens to reclaim agency rather than surrender to a perceived technological destiny. The mayor highlighted the federal government’s limited engagement on AI policy, suggesting that local officials must fill the regulatory vacuum.
In September, Mamdani signed an order prohibiting the use of AI tools in New York’s elementary and middle schools, a move he said counters the rush to embed the technology in classrooms. Glazer, a parent, expressed unease, stating, “It just makes me nervous. It feels so non-consensual, as though…this has to be in schools,” reflecting broader public concern. Over the summer, the mayor also unveiled a disclosure requirement obligating landlords, brokers, and online platforms to label any listing imagery generated by AI, aiming to curb deceptive “house-phishing” practices.
Mamdani warned that the rapid, unchecked deployment of AI carries real-world dangers, citing the February strike by U.S. forces on a school in Iran that killed more than 150 people, including at least 123 children. Pentagon investigators have told Bloomberg that an overreliance on AI-driven targeting contributed to the tragedy, illustrating how algorithmic confidence can translate into lethal outcomes when safeguards are absent.
At the national level, Mamdani said the AI debate is frequently framed as an arms race with China, pushing human-centered concerns to the margins. He noted that President Donald Trump’s Superintelligence Task Force, announced earlier this month, emphasizes industry self-regulation rather than imposing new federal rules. This stance persists despite internal warnings from whistleblowers at Anthropic, Google DeepMind and OpenAI that unchecked AI development could pose existential threats.
Looking ahead, the mayor argued that a post-administration era will require a fundamentally different framework for discussing and enforcing AI accountability. He pointed to the anticipated public debut of Anthropic later this year and OpenAI’s plan to list in 2027 as indicators that powerful AI firms will soon operate under market pressures as well as regulatory scrutiny. Mamdani’s appeal underscores a belief that city-level initiatives can shape broader policy trajectories.