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Can AI Help with the Chaos of Family Life? | Avni Patel Thompson | TED

Tech innovator Avni Patel Thompson designed an app to shield busy parents from the chaos of scheduling school pickups, coordinating playdates, planning birthday parties and more — but as the product developed, something felt off. What might we lose when AI smooths over the friction of everyday family life? Patel Thompson explores her surprising discovery…

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Tech innovator Avni Patel Thompson designed an app to shield busy parents from the chaos of scheduling school pickups, coordinating playdates, planning birthday parties and more — but as the product developed, something felt off. What might we lose when AI smooths over the friction of everyday family life? Patel Thompson explores her surprising discovery and how you can leverage AI to connect more deeply with the ones you love. (Recorded at TED2025 on April 10, 2025)

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29 Comments

29 Comments

  1. @AnilPatel-tu2qj

    June 2, 2025 at 1:25 pm

    And the point of all this AI help is?

    • @Spiritthatplayswiththewind

      June 2, 2025 at 1:39 pm

      Something about Borg.

  2. @jessicaannekovalick

    June 2, 2025 at 1:52 pm

    Can AI Help with the Chaos of RICH PEOPLE Life? I promise you the working class isn’t thinking: damn i wish i had an ai to help with these dishes! we want tax breaks, affordable child care, universal health care, and 4 day work weeks. not a fucking AI to suck up what will be the last of our water lol

  3. @manon3057

    June 2, 2025 at 2:02 pm

    a big NO .

    and NO to TED

  4. @RickLambert963

    June 2, 2025 at 2:41 pm

    AI is Eliza effec, algorithmic/logarithmic bells and whistles, tricks of psychopath overlords. Stay away from my family. Get off my torture device.

  5. @aaronjaggan

    June 2, 2025 at 3:27 pm

    Monkey brain activates? 😮

  6. @mclark732

    June 2, 2025 at 4:04 pm

    Hi a calendar and a functional brain can do this too

    • @mugflub

      June 2, 2025 at 4:52 pm

      Still takes more time. Why do it the hard way if you can have an AI assistant that is faster and more accurate? Some people just love to hate on new technology.

  7. @mickeysmyspiritanimal223

    June 2, 2025 at 5:11 pm

    Great Ted Talk! But on a serious note, is “Rosa”, her nanny, safe from the ICE raids? I say this sincerely. She should ensure that her nanny, Rosa, is also being treated fairly and respectfully! After all, “Milo” and “Rosa” are the true heroes here! 🤔 😉

  8. @SkellyBobRoss

    June 2, 2025 at 7:14 pm

    Not thought provoking, just a lady deciding technology is going to take the place of her own human interactions.

  9. @ImSodaLirious

    June 2, 2025 at 8:12 pm

    “We should normalize being a corporate slave to the point where we need AI to take care of the offspring we neglect”

  10. @MuhammadBilal-l6m3s

    June 2, 2025 at 8:26 pm

    ALX is one of the very few tokens I’m bullish on for both short-term and long-term holds.

  11. @IgãoCohabense

    June 2, 2025 at 8:26 pm

    If you understand how early we are in this cycle, Alaxio is an obvious pickup.

  12. @14LêThịBíchHoa-v5n

    June 2, 2025 at 8:27 pm

    Micro-cap now, but Alaxio could become a mid-cap monster in just months.

  13. @danielolivas-y5x

    June 2, 2025 at 8:27 pm

    The market is primed for smart projects like Alaxio with working AI tools and utility.

  14. @CesarFlores-p3h2s

    June 2, 2025 at 8:28 pm

    Big players always buy quiet — Alaxio is still in that quiet phase.

  15. @ChanellDockery-r4c

    June 2, 2025 at 8:28 pm

    Just wait until influencers start doing breakdowns of what Alaxio is actually building.

  16. @AliMcGarel-b2z

    June 2, 2025 at 8:29 pm

    Alaxio’s AI tech is actually usable, not just a buzzword slapped on for marketing.

  17. @TravisHarger-t8y

    June 2, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Look back in a few months — this presale price for ALX might look like a steal.

  18. @McKenzieDolan-r6y

    June 2, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    If 2024 was about L1s and memes, 2025 will be all about AI and real use. Alaxio leads that charge.

  19. @JennD-x5o

    June 2, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Everyone’s going to wish they had stacked ALX before the breakout.

  20. @MorganWright-j9j

    June 2, 2025 at 8:31 pm

    Early investor vibes only 🔥 Alaxio is my top bet for Q2/Q3 📊🧠

  21. @SteveDobson-i4t

    June 2, 2025 at 8:31 pm

    Pay attention to Alaxio now, or regret it later — this is a timing game.

  22. @KarleneWilliamson-g1e

    June 2, 2025 at 8:32 pm

    I’m not saying it’ll go 100x, but Alaxio definitely has the framework to surprise us all.

  23. @GenevieveA-q6l

    June 2, 2025 at 8:32 pm

    When projects like Alaxio drop solid dev updates pre-launch, that’s a very bullish sign.

  24. @AndreiSimionescu-q2q

    June 2, 2025 at 8:33 pm

    I’ve seen presales flop and fly. Alaxio has all the markers of a future flyer.

  25. @robertjohn8711

    June 2, 2025 at 11:14 pm

    booooooooo

  26. @vidskipperai

    June 2, 2025 at 11:19 pm

    *_TIMESTAMPS_* & Summary (by *VidSkipper AI* ): AI can help manage family life by automating administrative tasks, but it’s important to preserve ‘productive friction’—meaningful human interactions—to maintain strong family connections and personal fulfillment, using AI as a tool to choose what truly matters.
    0:03 🤯 The Chaos of Modern Family Life
    • 👩‍💻 Speaker recounts a typical chaotic Tuesday afternoon, interrupted by work and family obligations, highlighting the challenges of managing a modern family.
    • 🧠 The speaker’s brain felt like a computer constantly running the family’s logistics, making collaboration difficult and leading to frustration.
    • 💡 This experience led to the creation of an AI company to build a machine that could intercept interruptions and manage family life more efficiently.
    2:32 🔬 Identifying and Solving Friction
    • 🛠️ The speaker draws on her background as a scientist and product designer to identify and solve tiny bits of friction in everyday interactions.
    • 📱 Examples include designing child-resistant packaging for osteoporosis drugs and creating an SMS-based service for parents to connect with sitters.
    • 👪 Parenthood is seen as the ‘friction Olympics,’ inspiring the speaker to build a force field to manage interruptions and streamline family life.
    3:43 🎉 The AI Solution: Milo
    • 🤖 AI could handle ambiguous and incomplete information, unlike traditional software, enabling it to manage family life more effectively.
    • 🎂 AI can handle the implicit things that often mess up tired, busy parents, such as reminding to buy a birthday present or checking for conflicts.
    • 👨‍💻 The speaker built Milo, the first AI sidekick for parents, to take on rote, repetitive, administrative parts of family life.
    5:32 🧱 The Value of Productive Friction
    • 🤔 The speaker realized that not all friction is bad; productive friction creates connection and meaningful interactions.
    • 🤝 Productive friction involves meaningful interactions disguised as inefficiencies, essential for human relationships.
    • 🛡️ The goal shifted from a perfectly solid force field to a permeable one, shielding from unproductive tasks but allowing meaningful interactions to come through.
    7:34 💖 AI’s Radical Potential: Meaningful Choices
    • ✨ AI can help us choose what is most meaningful and make space for us to do it ourselves, rather than just doing things faster and better.
    • ❤️ The most radical thing AI can do is encourage us not to be more perfect and productive but unfinished and evolving.
    • 🙏 We should not be afraid to bear the friction, which shows us how we are all beautifully, imperfectly, inconveniently human.

    ** Generated using ✨ *_VidSkipper AI_* Chrome Extension

  27. @argynews

    June 3, 2025 at 4:41 pm

    What is she talking about how could all the mother of the world with 2-3-4-5 children and a job balance everything and remember all the tasks without AI. Sounds like she doesn’t want to put in the work.

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Science & Technology

When it Comes to Pitching, Don’t be Nice, Just Slay │ Build Mode Podcast

For women entering the founding and startup ecosystem, Taskrabbit founder Leah Solivan has a wealth of insights, especially on why you shouldn’t hold yourself back. Listen in on the latest episode of Build Mode for our full interview with her:

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For women entering the founding and startup ecosystem, Taskrabbit founder Leah Solivan has a wealth of insights, especially on why you shouldn’t hold yourself back.

Listen in on the latest episode of Build Mode for our full interview with her:

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The ‘Camera’ That Can Do Anything | What The Future

I visited Lightstorm Entertainment for a behind-the-scenes look at how Avatar: Fire and Ash was filmed. Performance capture technology films every possible angle at once, then a virtual camera captures specific shots, and finally, the VFX team completes all the effects. 0:00 Inside the Avatar: Fire and Ash Production 0:29 Phase 1: The Volume &…

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I visited Lightstorm Entertainment for a behind-the-scenes look at how Avatar: Fire and Ash was filmed. Performance capture technology films every possible angle at once, then a virtual camera captures specific shots, and finally, the VFX team completes all the effects.

0:00 Inside the Avatar: Fire and Ash Production
0:29 Phase 1: The Volume & Performance Capture
1:10 Introduction to the Virtual Camera
1:43 How the Virtual Camera Works
2:40 Establishing Creative Rules for Virtual Cinematography
3:07 Phase 3: Final VFX & Polishing the World
3:15 Where to Learn More & Viewer Discussion

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#movie #film #jamescameron #movies #avatar #camera #futuretech

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Science & Technology

A diverse team will make your startup more successful with Leah Solivan, Taskrabbit l Build Mode

If one thing has become clear this season, finding the right talent for your team isn’t as easy as picking from a pile of resumes This week’s guest is Leah Solivan, the founder of Taskrabbit and now an early-stage investor who has seen that the power to change a homogenous startup exosystem comes from empowering…

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If one thing has become clear this season, finding the right talent for your team isn’t as easy as picking from a pile of resumes This week’s guest is Leah Solivan, the founder of Taskrabbit and now an early-stage investor who has seen that the power to change a homogenous startup exosystem comes from empowering diverse VCs to fund underrepresented founders who will hire the hidden tech talent.

From bootstrapping TaskRabbit on credit cards to scaling it into one of the defining companies of the gig economy, Leah learned firsthand that the hardest part of building a company isn’t the product, it’s selecting the right people to build it.

In this episode, Isabelle Johannessen and Leah unpack what it really takes to build diverse teams from day one and why most companies get it wrong by waiting too long. They also explore how the lack of diversity in venture capital directly shapes who gets funded, and ultimately, who gets hired.

Apply to Startup Battlefield: We are looking for early-stage companies that have an MVP. So nominate a founder (or yourself): techcrunch.com/apply. Be sure to say you heard about Startup Battlefield from the Build Mode podcast.

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Use code buildmode15 for 15% off any ticket type.

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03:39 The moment that sparked Taskrabbit
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27:25 How to build diverse teams from day one
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New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday. Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.

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