Two of New York’s sweethearts, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and activist and “Broad City” star Ilana Glazer, spoke about AI at Webster Hall in Manhattan on Monday night, with Glazer posing questions to the mayor about the future of AI in society.

Mamdani encouraged New Yorkers to resist the overwhelming feeling that AI is inevitably coming for their jobs, their kids’ minds, and their dignity, and to take back control instead.

His message came at a moment when the federal government is doing little to regulate AI, leaving cities to act on their own. At The People’s AI Assembly, an event hosted by the AI Now Institute, a think tank that explores the social implications of AI, Mamdani argued that the technology’s rapid rollout is not inevitable and that public officials should hold AI companies accountable.

Last month, Mamdani ordered a ban on AI use in elementary and middle schools. Glazer, a parent, said the technology’s arrival in classrooms unsettles her.

“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 said.

Over the summer, the mayor also introduced a policy that would require landlords, brokers, and real estate platforms to clearly disclose when a property’s listing photos or videos are made with AI. The policy is aimed at protecting New Yorkers from getting “house-phished,” or tricked by misleading listings.

Both moves challenge the assumption that schools and the public must simply accept AI as it arrives.

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