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Lost Debate

The People vs. AI

Lost Debate

The Branch

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.6607 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Ravi Gupta talks with Time’s Andrew Chow about an unlikely coalition rising up against AI — from MAGA-aligned tech skeptics to democratic socialists pushing for data center moratoriums. They trace how local activism is already stalling major infrastructure projects, even as Big Tech prepares to flood elections with money to keep regulation at bay. The conversation zeroes in on the highest-stakes frontier: AI’s role in weapons and domestic surveillance, and whether any company will hold firm on its “red lines” when contracts and market pressure hit. Ultimately, Ravi frames it as a defining political fight of the decade: can everyday people set the terms, or will the machines — and the companies building them — decide for us? Andrew Chow’s The People vs. AI (Time, Feb 2026) Ravi’s recent substack post: The Melt-Up Join Squadra, Ravi's fitness community –––––– Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com  Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to The Lost Debate, a show for political eclectics. I'm Robbie Gupta. And in a second, we're going to hear from Andrew Chow, who wrote a Time magazine front cover profile of nine different activist politicians, folks from across the political spectrum who are in various ways fighting against AI, whether it's data centers or the encroachment of the technology

0:23.1

or the use of it for young people, et cetera. And he paints a picture of a diverse political

0:28.9

coalition fighting against these very powerful companies who are investing tons of money in their

0:35.1

effort to steamroll any regulation and march forward with this technology

0:39.7

that obviously is very powerful.

0:41.7

And so we'll get to him in a second.

0:42.8

But before we do, a few housekeeping items, number one, I've been writing a lot about AI generally

0:48.1

on my substack.

0:49.2

And I wrote a piece that was not very rosy, but I think paints a picture of where I truly

0:53.6

believe we are right

0:54.5

now and could read that at real Robbie Gupta.substack.com. And my more most recent piece is called

1:00.0

the meltup. And it's all about how I think we're going to see this sort of euphoric use of this

1:04.7

technology before we see a very bleak come down from that. So you can go there and subscribe for

1:10.4

free and read that.

1:11.1

The second piece here is that I have this fitness community that I've been running for eight

1:16.4

years called Squadra, which is, you know, a group of people that come together every year and

1:22.2

we track certain healthy habits and workouts and things like that. And basically it's a way to incentivize you to

1:29.4

work out and be healthy and do it in a sort of team and communal setting. And we have like a hundred

1:34.0

point scale about what it means every week to be healthy, whether you're lifting a certain amount

1:37.9

or doing cardio or eating right. And you compete against other people and you compete as teams.

1:45.9

And we've had everybody from people who are totally beginners in fitness to those who are former professional athletes. So no matter

1:51.7

where you are. So you can sign up now. We're accepting people on a rolling basis. And in March,

...

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