What does Joe Lonsdale’s AI agent and Ballerina Farm have in common?
Lonsdale, who cofounded Palantir before building his venture capital firm, told CNBC on Thursday how his wife, Tayler, uses AI — and the nickname she’s given their agent.
“My wife has Grok Bot at home,” Lonsdale said. “She calls it the ‘tradbot’ for tradwife.”
For those unfamiliar, a tradwife is a woman who embraces traditional gender roles, such as supporting her husband with household work and taking a primary role in raising kids. Some of these tradwives become influencers, posting videos of their ornate meals or gifts for their husbands.
The Lonsdale family’s “tradbot” helps them manage parenting duties for their six children. Lonsdale said the AI agent tells them about health appointments and activities.
He asked the “tradbot” to help his two-year-old break up with his binky. “It’s telling me when to and when not to give it to him,” Lonsdale said.
Parents have been employing AI for all kinds of use cases. One mom of two previously told Business Insider that she sends voice memos to Claude to help organize her life. Another said that she built AI agents to help manage schedules and school emails. Business Insider’s Amanda Hoover declared mom, dad, and AI the “modern parenting throuple.” The debate of how much — if any — AI should be involved in parenting continues to rage online.
Lonsdale is a vocal proponent of AI, having invested in it heavily through his venture capital fund, 8VC. During September’s AI extinction freak-out, Lonsdale reassured the public: “The world is going to be alright, guys.”
Clearly, Lonsdale’s use of AI has extended beyond the office. “My wife’s definitely using it at home,” Lonsdale told CNBC, “and we’re using it a lot at work as well.”
