OpenClaw creator says AI agent future is coming
Peter Steinberger’s artificial intelligence agent tool OpenClaw has taken the tech world by storm with its ability to execute real-life tasks such as checking him in for his flight to Tokyo.
AI is not yet a ubiquitous personal assistant for ordinary people, but “you’ll see much more of that this year because this is the year of agents”, Steinberger told AFP in the Japanese capital on Monday.
“There are still some things we need to do to make it better,” the Austrian programmer said.
Demand is ramping up, however, with more developers now “making the future happen”, he added in an interview during a gathering for OpenClaw enthusiasts.
When downloaded, OpenClaw can be connected to existing AI models and given simple instructions through instant messaging apps, as if to a friend or colleague.
Jensen Huang, head of the world’s most valuable company Nvidia, this month hailed the tool — whose symbol is a bright red lobster — as “the next ChatGPT”.
But all the buzz has raised concerns over the cybersecurity risks of allowing AI systems vulnerable to hacks to access personal data such as bank details.
Chinese ‘momentum’
Steinberger built OpenClaw in November while playing around with AI coding tools in an attempt to organise his digital life.
He has since been hired by ChatGPT creator OpenAI “to drive the next generation of personal agents”, the US startup’s boss Sam Altman said in February.
“What you have to know about OpenClaw is, like, it couldn’t have come from those big companies,” Steinberger told AFP.
“Those companies would have worried too much about what could go wrong instead of just, like — I wanted to just show people I’ve been into the future,” he said.
While tech giants work out how agent tools could be used by businesses, the next AI innovation could come from “someone who just wants to have fun”, Steinberger said.
At Monday’s “ClawCon” event in Tokyo, where many of the hundreds of participants were dressed as lobsters, OpenClaw demos were held on stage and experts helped attendees install their agents.
Similar scenes have been seen across China, where users have been particularly quick to embrace OpenClaw’s potential to organise emails, help with coding and a plethora of other digital tasks.
“If you see it as a competition, it certainly looks like China is gaining a lot of momentum” in the AI sector, Steinberger said.
“But right now there’s still quite a bit of a leap between the best models from China and the best models in the US.”
