Mamdani says the federal government has abdicated its responsibility on AI and urges New Yorkers to push back.

Meta description: Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Ilana Glazer pressed for city-level AI regulation at The People’s AI Assembly as OpenAI and Anthropic eye public markets.

Tags: New York AI, AI regulation, OpenAI, Anthropic, Zohran Mamdani

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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and activist Ilana Glazer, the “Broad City” star, used a Monday-night forum at Webster Hall in Manhattan to frame AI regulation as a civic decision rather than an unavoidable force. At The People’s AI Assembly, hosted by the AI Now Institute, a think tank that explores the social implications of AI, Glazer asked questions about the future of AI in society. Mamdani urged New Yorkers to resist the feeling that AI is inevitably coming for jobs, children’s minds, and dignity, and to take back control.

Background: Local Rules Arrived Before the Forum

The event followed a series of New York measures that tested how far a city can go while the federal government does little to regulate AI, leaving cities to act on their own. Over the summer, Mamdani introduced a policy requiring landlords, brokers, and real estate platforms to clearly disclose when property listing photos or videos are made with AI. The aim was to protect New Yorkers from getting “house-phished,” or tricked by misleading listings.

Last month, the mayor ordered a ban on AI use in elementary and middle schools. Glazer, a parent, said the technology’s arrival in classrooms unsettles her. She described the rollout as feeling “non-consensual,” noting that AI was not in schools two years ago and asking why it had to be there now. Both moves challenged the assumption that schools and the public must simply accept AI as it arrives.

Development: Monday Night at Webster Hall

At the assembly, Mamdani said “Nothing has to be,” arguing that AI’s rapid rollout is not inevitable and that public officials should hold AI companies accountable. He warned of a “reckless adoption of technology” without a reckoning with its limitations. To illustrate the stakes, he cited the U.S. military’s February strike on a school in Iran that killed more than 150 people, including at least 123 children. Officials involved in the Pentagon’s internal investigation told Bloomberg that overreliance on AI in targeting was one factor.

Mamdani said AI is often discussed as if it is infallible, cannot be questioned, and can only be regulated by its developers. He noted that Facebook made similar arguments in 2008. He described that stance as an attempt to escape accountability without jeopardizing the potential valuation from an IPO. He also said there is a creeping intent to overwhelm people into feeling they have no option.

Latest Context: IPO Timelines and Federal Framing

The accountability debate sits against a backdrop of market pressure. Anthropic is expected to debut on the public markets this year, and OpenAI has said it will go public in 2027. Mamdani criticized the “complete abdication of federal law” on AI, saying national conversations often shrink into an arms race framing with China, pushing humanistic concerns to the side.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s Superintelligence Task Force was announced. It largely focuses on allowing powerful AI companies to self-regulate rather than creating new federal restrictions. That comes despite growing fears about AI’s effect on every facet of human life, including warnings from whistleblowers at Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI that AI could lead to human extinction.

Current Stage: A City Test of Federal Limits

Mamdani said that as people look at what comes after this federal administration, there must be a different framework for how society thinks about AI, talks about AI, and brings forward accountability. New York’s school ban, housing disclosure rule, and Monday forum show the city acting while federal rules remain thin. The next phase will turn on whether local officials can sustain accountability demands as AI companies move closer to public markets and as the task force continues to favor self-regulation.