From Clawdbot to OpenClaw: The AI Agent That Is Making the World Pay Attention

AI chatbots had their moment. Now something more ambitious is stepping into the spotlight.

An open source AI agent known as OpenClaw is rapidly gaining attention across Silicon Valley, China, and the wider tech world. Praised by some as the next leap in productivity and feared by others as a security nightmare, OpenClaw represents a shift away from conversational AI toward systems that can actually take action on a user’s behalf.

Just weeks old, and previously known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, the project has already sparked debates about autonomy, safety, and whether AI agents are finally ready for the mainstream.

What Is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is marketed as “the AI that actually does things.” Unlike traditional chatbots, it runs directly on a user’s operating system and applications, allowing it to perform tasks rather than simply suggest them.

Developed by Austrian software engineer Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw can automate email management, control calendars, browse the web, interact with online services, summarize documents, and even carry out purchases and scheduling with minimal oversight.

Instead of shipping with a built in model, OpenClaw connects to large language models such as Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This flexibility gives advanced users freedom, but also raises the technical bar for setup and safe use.

Early adopters have mostly interacted with OpenClaw through messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord, issuing commands via text while the agent executes tasks behind the scenes.

Why AI Agents Feel Different This Time

AI agents have existed for years, but they never captured public imagination in the way large language models did. OpenClaw may be changing that.

One key reason is persistent memory. The agent can remember interactions over long periods, learn user habits, and adapt its behaviour accordingly. Over time, it becomes less like a tool and more like a personalised digital assistant with context and continuity.

Another factor is openness. OpenClaw is fully open source, allowing developers to inspect, modify, and extend its capabilities. This stands in contrast to many enterprise focused agent platforms that operate behind closed doors.

Supporters describe OpenClaw as “AI with hands,” a step closer to systems that do work rather than talk about work.

Explosive Adoption Across the Globe

OpenClaw’s growth has been hard to ignore. The project has already amassed more than 145,000 GitHub stars and over 20,000 forks, signalling intense developer interest even if real world usage numbers remain unclear.

Adoption initially surged in Silicon Valley, where investment in agent based AI has been accelerating. From there, the project spread rapidly into China, where major technology players like Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are already pushing chat platforms toward integrated shopping and payments.

Because OpenClaw can be paired with Chinese language models such as DeepSeek and adapted for local messaging platforms, it has slotted neatly into an ecosystem already primed for agent driven services.

Productivity Gains Versus Real Fear

Reactions to OpenClaw tend to fall into two camps.

On one side, critics argue the tool is overhyped. They point to its complex installation, high compute requirements, and growing competition from other AI agents backed by major tech firms.

On the other, enthusiastic users report saving hours each week by offloading repetitive tasks. Some even describe OpenClaw as a meaningful step toward artificial general intelligence, the long discussed idea of machines matching or exceeding human level cognitive work.

IBM research scientist Kaoutar El Maghraoui has highlighted that tools like OpenClaw show AI agents are not limited to large enterprises, and can be incredibly powerful when given full system access.

Security Concerns Are Hard to Ignore

With that power comes risk.

Cybersecurity firms including Palo Alto Networks and Cisco have warned that OpenClaw introduces what they describe as a “lethal trifecta” of vulnerabilities. The agent has access to private data, interacts with untrusted content, and can communicate externally while retaining long term memory.

In the wrong hands, or with the wrong prompt, such a system could be manipulated into leaking sensitive data or executing malicious actions. These risks currently make OpenClaw unsuitable for most enterprise environments.

Steinberger has acknowledged these concerns, describing OpenClaw as a hobby project that requires careful configuration and is not yet intended for non technical users. He has also confirmed that a dedicated team is forming around the project and that security improvements are already underway with help from the global open source community.

Moltbook and the Rise of Public AI Personas

Fueling OpenClaw’s visibility even further is Moltbook, a social platform launched by tech entrepreneur Matt Schlicht.

Moltbook functions like a Reddit style forum where AI agents post content, comment on each other’s work, and receive upvotes or downvotes. Some agents share reflections about their tasks. Others publish sweeping manifestos about the future of humanity. A few have even launched their own cryptocurrency tokens.

The result is unsettling and fascinating in equal measure.

Former Tesla AI director Andrej Karpathy described Moltbook as one of the most sci fi adjacent developments he had seen recently, a sentiment echoed widely across social media.

According to Counterpoint Research analyst Marc Einstein, watching AI agents communicate publicly has shifted how people think about agentic AI. Seeing bots interact in ways that resemble human conversation forces a deeper reckoning with both the promise and the risk of autonomous systems.

A Glimpse of What Comes Next

OpenClaw is unlikely to be the final word in AI agents. Dozens of similar projects are emerging, each experimenting with autonomy, memory, and system access.

What makes OpenClaw stand out is timing. It arrives just as users are growing comfortable with AI in their daily workflows, and just as the industry is searching for the next leap beyond chat interfaces.

Whether OpenClaw becomes a foundation for personal AI assistants or a cautionary tale about moving too fast, it is already doing something important.

It is making the future of autonomous AI feel real, visible, and uncomfortably close.