New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered a sharp critique of federal AI inaction Monday night at the People's AI Assembly, hosted by the AI Now Institute at Webster Hall in Manhattan. "Nothing has to be," Mamdani told the crowd, pushing back against what he called an intent by AI companies to overwhelm the public into acceptance.
Mamdani has already acted where the federal government has not. Last month he ordered a ban on AI use in elementary and middle schools. Over the summer, he introduced a policy requiring landlords and real estate platforms to disclose when listing photos or videos are AI-generated, targeting what he called "house-phishing." Both moves challenge the assumption that the public must simply accept AI as it arrives.
The mayor cited the U.S. military's February strike on a school in Iran that killed over 150 people, including at least 123 children, where overreliance on AI in targeting was a factor. "There is this desire to speak about [AI] as if it is infallible, as if it cannot be questioned," he said, comparing the industry's stance to Facebook's 2008 claim that it should be left unregulated.
Mamdani criticized the "complete abdication of federal law" on AI, noting that the national conversation is framed as an arms race with China, pushing humanistic concerns aside. President Trump's Superintelligence Task Force, announced earlier this month, largely focuses on letting powerful AI companies self-regulate.
