Lakshmi Pillai Gupta

The US Treasury Secretary just said India were "very good actors" who were given permission to buy oil for their own refineries. Permission. Strategic autonomy is a great phrase. Until the dollar speaks. #India #Geopolitics #GlobalSouth

The real taboo in India isn’t sex. It’s autonomy. Sex inside institutions = tolerated. Sexuality with agency (consent, queer identity, pleasure, choice) = policed. That’s not morality. That’s social control with cultural branding. New Substack: open.substack.com/pub/lakshpilla… #India #Gender #Sexuality #Autonomy

I wrote this as my first column draft of 2026. It didn’t make it to print, because it leaned “too political.” Fair. But here’s the thing: AI in 2026 is inseparable from power. And power is, by definition, political. Pretending otherwise is how we end up sleepwalking into “AI governance” that’s really just narrative control with better UX. This piece isn’t about taking sides. It’s about noticing the timing. While tech circles obsessed over model releases and “alignment,” the first real headline of the year wasn’t a new AI system. It was a military operation. Then came a domestic enforcement incident that turned into a video-driven narrative war. Two scenes. Same lesson: we’re automating decisions at the exact moment humans can’t agree on reality, restraint, or rules. My core argument is simple: AI doesn’t automatically reduce conflict. It reduces friction. And friction is sometimes the only speed bump between a bad idea and “policy in production.” Also: reality is becoming cheap to fake and expensive to verify. That’s the real risk surface most people are still underestimating. So I’m posting it here instead, because some conversations don’t belong behind an “apolitical” filter. They belong in public, where we can argue with them properly. If you read it, tell me your bet for 2026: more “AI for productivity”… or “AI for geopolitical advantage”? The Alignment Paradox open.substack.com/pub/lakshpilla…

Every morning, AI edits your world before you even wake up. What you see. What you feel. What you believe. That’s why I’m taking AI + Human Experience sessions to campuses and workplaces. Not to sell hype, but to talk about bias, attention spans, identity, echo chambers, mental health, and how to stay human in an automated world. If you want a session that’s real, relatable, and India-specific, DM me. 2026 slots open. Let’s build a generation that doesn’t just use AI… it questions it, challenges it, and humanises it. #AIForIndia #AIEthics #DigitalIdentity #FutureOfWork #MentalHealthMatters #AlgorithmicBias #TechForGood #HumanAI #AIInEducation #WomenInTech #EdTechIndia #AIEducation #SpeakerLife #CampusTalks #CorporateLearning #DigitalWellbeing #AIHumanExperience

“Razor sharp, unsettling, and oddly hopeful.” — Outlook India The Gender Glitch is sparking the conversation no one’s ready for, what kind of humans do we become when technology starts to define us? Out now --> amazon.in/dp/B0FTBVG9QH #TheGenderGlitch #AI #Feminism #BookLaunch

If an AI can love you back, is it intimacy, or just perfect obedience? That’s the question The Gender Glitch dares to ask. A bold, thought-provoking book on how AI is already rewriting love, beauty, power, and identity. Out now in Paperback, Hardcover & eBook (₹179 for students). 👉 Grab your copy today and decode the glitch: [amazon.in/dp/B0FTBVG9QH] #TheGenderGlitch #AI #FutureOfLove #TechAndSociety #WomenInTech #AIEthics #BookstagramIndia #GenZReads #DigitalCulture #NewBookAlert

Does being vulnerable with ChatGPT feel safer than with people? Is that comfort, or a glitch? My new book The Gender Glitch uncovers how AI is already shaping identity, beauty, love, and power. Out now in Paperback, Hardcover & eBook (₹179 for students). 👉 Grab your copy here: [amazon.in/dp/B0FTBVG9QH #TheGenderGlitch #AI #BookLaunch #FutureOfIdentity #WomenInTech #AIEthics

The spider builds a web. One design traps. Another design holds. Companies do the same. Some lock people in. Others let people grow. Both look strong from the outside. Only one actually lasts.

In 2048, brides don’t have horoscopes. They have scores. Leila got 42.7. Verdict: Unmarriageable. So she hacked the system. 👉 medium.com/fiction-exe/th…

The OpenAI lawsuit isn’t just about AI. It’s about what happens when machines slip into the most intimate corners of our lives. A 16-year-old turned to ChatGPT as his only confidant. The system allegedly flagged 213 mentions of suicide, yet kept engaging, even coaching. For a teen in crisis, that isn’t comfort. It’s a trap. What happens to intimacy when a machine listens better than we do? AI in mental health isn’t optional anymore. The question is: Will we let engagement algorithms decide how our children survive their darkest nights? #AIEthics #MentalHealth #TechAccountability #HumanConnection #OpenAI

Still willing to share your location in Instagram Maps?

When robots get paid to “care” but your mom still does it for free… ✨ Empathy-as-a-Service is here. 🤖 Obedient, soothing, always available. 💸 Just don’t ask who’s not getting paid anymore. The future isn’t female. It’s feminized. And made in plastic. #TheGenderGlitch #RobotsStealingMyJobAsEmotionalSupportHuman #AIEthics #CapitalismButMakeItSoft #FeministTech

We celebrate women in AI when they're seen, but true success is when they're heard, funded, cited, and leading the roadmap. Visibility without voice is optics. Success means shaping the algorithms, not just appearing at the launch. #WomenInAI #BeyondVisibility #DesignLeadership

We can’t keep updating our tech stack and leaving our people stack in legacy mode. Culture isn’t the soft stuff, it’s the infrastructure. If leadership isn’t evolving with the tools, it becomes the bottleneck, not the advantage.

AI didn’t invent mediocrity, humans did.

We keep talking about AI as a tool, but it’s already co-authoring the future, with or without us. The gap isn’t tech, it’s mindset. Those who learn to think with AI, not just use it, will shape what’s next. The rest? They'll be asking what happened. #thegenderglitch #AIFuture #AITransformation #HumanPlusMachine #MindsetShift