The AI Boom Looks a Lot Like the Housing Bubble: Zohran Mamdani
Does New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani worry we’re in an AI bubble? Yes. Does he trust AI industry leaders? No.
Read WIRED's full interview with Mamdani for his stance on data centers, AI in schools, and the future of the Democratic party. And subscribe to or follow Uncanny Valley wherever you get your podcasts.
Released on 11/03/2026
You've supported New York State setting a one-year pause
on data center construction.
What next? What comes after that?
I mean, what to you is the solve for this?
I think one of the solves
is a recognition of the costs that come with AI.
So much of what we are talking about
is based on a very limited amount of information
that we have, and that is by design
because when we're talking
about these incredibly powerful companies,
we also are talking about a level of opacity
that renders it almost impossible
for us to make an informed conclusion
as to how much this query
is actually costing us as a society.
You mean sort of an absence of data about energy use
and things like that,
or do you mean the idea that this technology
is sort of mythical rather than infrastructure?
I mean the former.
And I think that frankly,
there's an attempt to make this technology
seem as if it is mythical or as if it is divine.
There is a real investment.
Unknowable. Exactly.
There's an investment
in the idea that this is so complicated
that the only rational response
should be that we trust those who created it.
And in many ways, it's what Facebook was arguing in 2008,
that they should be able to regulate themselves.
And yet what we need to see
is a response that grasps the scale
of the adoption of this technology
and the incentives that are driving
a lot of this technology at this time.
And the fact that we are now at a point
where there are far too many similarities
between the housing bubble
and the state of AI in our economy today.
You worry that we're in a bubble?
Yes.
You worry that bubble's gonna pop?
Yes.
Do you trust the Sam Altmans of the world?
No.
Do you trust the Sam Altmans of the world?
I'm not the one being interviewed, but no, I don't.
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