‘Our Risk, Their Reward’: Zohran Mamdani on AI and Data Centers

WIRED editor Katie Drummond interviewed New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani at City Hall, with data centers, AI in schools and the coming midterms on the agenda. The sit-down came roughly ten months into Mamdani's tenure and about a year after she first spoke with him in the final stretch of his mayoral campaign.

That earlier encounter caught a candidate surging from unknown to front-runner in a matter of months, carried by an affordability message aimed at the working class and by a social media fluency that made his rivals look out of their element. Drummond recalled the near-electric charge he brought into the room and how he stopped foot traffic during a Manhattan photo shoot, turning the mundanity of local politics into something that felt like a cultural revolution.

A year on, that electricity persists, though it reads as a little more tired. Mamdani's approval rating among New York voters sits at a striking 69 percent, and he ranks among the most influential figures on the American left; his harshest critics call him a dangerous radical whose politics threaten the very city he leads. He has become a lightning rod for fights ranging from Israel to the Democratic Socialists of America, and a beacon of hope for admirers well beyond New York.

The conversation itself reflected the toll of governing: Mamdani's voice was hoarse and he told Drummond it had been "a long day," yet the piece portrays him as newly liberated and empowered to speak his mind after a year of wielding power rather than merely seeking it. Beyond AI and data centers, the two discussed how he uses social media as a tool of governance and where he lands on the issues driving the midterms.

What to watch is whether Mamdani's positions on data centers and AI in schools harden into concrete policy for New York City, and how a mayor whose political capital is built on online reach navigates being simultaneously a progressive standard-bearer and a target. Drummond's framing — winning power and wielding it are two very different things — sets the bar for the year ahead. Also unresolved: how much the massive online reach that powered his campaign helps once the daily grind of governing sets the pace, and whether a 69 percent approval rating survives the fights to come.