Robert Farlow
Robert Farlow is the co-founder and chief executive of Plato, a San Francisco AI start-up founded in 2025 that builds simulated versions of real-world work software for training and evaluating AI agents.
Contents5 sections
Key facts
Early Career: Education and Yutori
He has described himself as an engineering graduate of the University of Waterloo.[1]
He built an annotation platform for computer-use models at Yutori.[2]
2025Co-founding Plato
By July 2025 he was running PlatoPlatoPlato develops simulated work environments for training and evaluating AI agents. It builds working environments around the software, data and workflows of real jobs and publishes benchmarks for assessing model capabilities.Open the full entry in San Francisco as co-founder and chief executive, building training environments for AI agents.[1]
His fellow co-founder, Pranav PuttaPranav PuttaPranav Putta is the co-founder and chief technology officer of the AI start-up Plato and a researcher on autonomous AI agents. He is the first author of Agent Q, an agent research paper from MultiOn.Open the full entry, is chief technology officer.[3]
Plato builds simulated environments for training and evaluating browser agents.[4]
December 2025Training AI on Replica Websites
In December 2025, discussing start-ups that copy websites such as Amazon and Gmail to train AI agents, he said: “We want to build training environments that capture entire jobs that people do.”[5]
October 2026Plato’s Series A
In October 2026 Plato announced a $16 million Series A. The company copies the software and tasks of real jobs, such as customer support, finance and HR, for AI labs to train and test agents. “Mastering real complex work comes from experience doing those tasks,” he said.[6]
The company has raised $19 million in total.[4]
Sources
- (0095) ten founders, biology, aerospace, and ai (opens in a new window)
- Plato Raises $16 Million to Build the Training Grounds for AI's Next Leap Into Real Work (opens in a new window)
- Plato Raises $16 Million Series A to Build Simulated Workplaces for AI Agents (opens in a new window)
- Plato | Simulated Worlds for Agents (opens in a new window)
- Silicon Valley builds Amazon and Gmail copycats to train AI agents (opens in a new window)
- Plato raises $16M to build fake offices where AI agents learn real jobs (opens in a new window)