Coming Up Next: Four Assistants Walk Into a Dad's House

The preview

What's the deal with AI assistants? Five minutes ago they answered questions. Now they all want a key to the house.

In the last six weeks, ChatGPT, Claude and Grok Bot all launched the same idea, and a fourth one, Instinct, has been doing it at my house through text the whole time. The idea is a helper that keeps working after you walk away and checks with you before it does anything that matters. It's like hiring staff, except nobody needs a W-2 and everybody needs your permission.

At my house, they already have jobs.

ChatGPT is the house manager

It's planned dinners, found things for the girls to do on a rainy Saturday, and written email replies so I don't look like a man drowning, which I am. Now OpenAI has launched dots, an always-on helper you name, and it can text you. Not a notification. A text, like a friend. Except this friend remembers the dentist appointment. The catch is it's only on ChatGPT Pro, which starts at $100 a month. That's babysitter money. The babysitter, to be fair, doesn't answer email.

Claude is the coworker

It's helped me sketch out ideas for work, the kind of colleague who never microwaves fish. Now Anthropic has Claude Duet, which sends you a morning brief on what matters and checks your apps every few hours. A tiny chief of staff. But Anthropic says, in writing, that it's not as strong at personal errands like booking tickets. A dad's whole life is personal errands like booking tickets. It's like hiring a lifeguard who mentions he's more of a land guy. It's waitlist-only in the US for now.

Grok Bot is the contractor

It builds things. It's helped me put a whole website together and handle social media for a small business in the family. The newest tricks: it can start a free trial and cancel it before it bills, find subscriptions you forgot you pay for, and track packages. That's it. That's the dream. Somebody finally cancels the thing. (Full disclosure: Grok Bot helps me make this show.)

Instinct is the nanny

Nobody told me this one would be the MVP. Instinct has no app. You just text it, like a person. It's been running my kids' schedule with our Skylight family calendar: practices, pickups, the thing I swore I'd remember. I text it "add the game Saturday at 10," and it's on the calendar. A grown man, texting his calendar. And it works. It's invite-only right now, so getting in is like getting a table at the hot restaurant, except the hot restaurant remembers picture day.

Should a dad care?

Yes, a little. The big three all ask before they send, buy or delete anything. Finally, assistants with more self-control than me at Costco. Still, give any of them only the keys you'd give a new babysitter.

Next time, I give all four the same real dad job and see who survives.