Carbon Robotics, the Seattle startup that builds robots used by farmers to eliminate weeds without the use of chemicals, got another vote of confidence from the nation’s health policy leader.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, touted the company’s machines on a new episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the popular long-form podcast that topped Spotify’s global list in 2025.
Kennedy said the technology is a way to both eliminate pesticides from farms and help farmers save costs. He said he recently met with three farmers using Carbon’s machine, which attaches to the back of a tractor and uses an array of AI-powered technology to detect plants in fields and then target and eliminate weeds with lasers, without disturbing the soil microbiology.
The largest onion producer in Texas saves more than $1,000 per acre by using Carbon’s machines due to reduction of pesticide use and labor costs, Kennedy said.
“We got to get off this stuff, we got to give these farmers an off-ramp so that they can get off it,” he said of pesticide use. He added: “There are all these kind of new exciting technologies that give us a light at the end of tunnel to transition. And it could be very, very fast. What the president wants to do is accelerate that.”
Carbon Robotics CEO and founder Paul Mikesell followed up with video commentary responding to Kennedy’s comments on the podcast.
“We want to see more investment in the space, more ways in which we can take the newer technologies that we’ve been creating — for things like AI, self-driving cars, etc. — and apply it toward farming and our agriculture sector so that farmers are more productive and we get healthier food,” Mikesell said.
The conversation about pesticides and Carbon’s technology starts at the 1:51 mark on the episode.
Earlier this month Kennedy cited Carbon’s machines on an episode of the Theo Von podcast “This Past Weekend,” making similar comments about new technology that can curb the use of pesticides on farms.
Founded in 2018, Carbon has raised $177 million to date and employs about 260 people. It runs a manufacturing facility in Richland, Wash., and Mikesell previously said its LaserWeeder machines are active on hundreds of farms and in 15 countries around the world.
Mikesell is a longtime technologist and entrepreneur who previously co-founded data storage company Isilon Systems (which sold for $2.25 billion in 2010) and led an infrastructure engineering group at Uber for four years.
Earlier this month, Carbon announced the launch of what it calls the world’s first “Large Plant Model” — an AI model for plant detection and identification. “Trained on the largest, most diverse, and fastest growing agricultural dataset ever built with 150 million labeled plants, the LPM enables farmers to start laser weeding any field or crop in minutes,” the company said in a news release.
Last October, Carbon raised $20 million in new funding to support the creation of another piece of AI-powered machinery for farms that it has yet to reveal. Carbon previously unveiled the Carbon ATK, an autonomous platform designed to fit on and control existing farm equipment.
The company’s backers include BOND; Anthos Capital; FUSE, Ignition; Revolution; Sozo Ventures; and Voyager.
