Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined activist and Broad City star Ilana Glazer on Monday evening at Webster Hall in Manhattan to discuss artificial intelligence. Glazer led the conversation by asking the mayor about AI's role in everyday life and its broader effects on society.

Mamdani called on New Yorkers to reject the sense that AI will automatically claim jobs, shape children's thinking, and erode personal dignity. He urged residents to reclaim authority over how the technology is used instead.

The remarks came as federal officials have taken limited steps to oversee AI development, leaving local governments to set their own standards. Speaking at the People's AI Assembly organized by the AI Now Institute, Mamdani stated that the fast spread of these tools is not predetermined and that leaders must require accountability from AI firms.

Last month the mayor banned AI tools in elementary and middle schools. Glazer, who has children, voiced concern about the technology entering classrooms without clear consent or prior need.

She noted that the sudden requirement felt imposed, especially since the tools were absent from schools just two years earlier. Over the summer Mamdani also proposed rules forcing landlords, agents, and listing sites to label any AI-generated property images or videos to help prevent misleading offers.

These steps push back against the notion that schools and residents must accept AI without question. Mamdani emphasized that nothing about the technology's rollout is fixed and warned of a deliberate push to make people feel powerless against it.

He pointed to hasty deployment without proper review of its limits, referencing a U.S. military strike on a school in Iran earlier this year that resulted in more than 150 deaths, many of them children. Reports indicated heavy reliance on AI targeting contributed to the error.

Mamdani criticized the portrayal of AI as beyond question or regulation except by its own creators, comparing the stance to arguments made by social platforms years earlier. He described the approach as an effort to avoid responsibility while protecting upcoming market valuations for companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI.

The mayor faulted the federal government for stepping away from AI oversight. He noted that national discussions often frame the issue as a competition with China, sidelining concerns about human impact.

Recent federal initiatives have leaned toward letting major AI developers set their own standards rather than imposing new limits, even as former employees from several leading labs have raised alarms about potential long-term risks. Mamdani said future national policy must include stronger accountability measures and a broader view of AI's effects on daily life.