OpenAI grabs OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger to build personal agents
(2026/02/16)
- Reference: 1771206983
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/16/open_ai_grabs_openclaw/
- Source link:
Peter Steinberger, the creator of the tantalizing-but-risky personal AI agent OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI.
In a Sunday [1]Xeet , OpenAI boss Sam Altman said Steinberger will “drive the next generation of personal agents.”
“He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people. We expect this will quickly become core to our product offerings,” Altman added.
[2]
Steinberger used his blog to [3]explain his decision.
[4]
[5]
“I could totally see how OpenClaw could become a huge company,” he wrote, but said “it’s not really exciting for me.”
“I’m a builder at heart. I did the whole creating-a-company game already, poured 13 years of my life into it and learned a lot. What I want is to change the world, not build a large company, and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone.”
[6]
Altman said OpenClaw “will live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.”
“The future is going to be extremely multi-agent and it's important to us to support open source as part of that,” he said.
That stance seems to have been very important to Steinberger, who wrote that he spent last week in San Francisco “talking with the major labs” before deciding to join OpenAI.
[7]
“It’s always been important to me that OpenClaw stays open source and given the freedom to flourish,” he wrote. “Ultimately, I felt OpenAI was the best place to continue pushing on my vision and expand its reach. The more I talked with the people there, the clearer it became that we both share the same vision.”
[8]More than 135,000 OpenClaw instances exposed to internet in latest vibe-coded disaster
[9]OpenClaw reveals meaty personal information after simple cracks
[10]AI agents can't yet pull off fully autonomous cyberattacks – but they are already very helpful to crims
[11]AI agent seemingly tries to shame open source developer for rejected pull request
Thus ends an extraordinary few weeks for OpenClaw, which just a few weeks ago was an obscure project named “Clawdbot” that allows users to drive third-party online services through messaging apps – if they’re brave enough to provide Clawdbot with their credentials.
The bot can automate tasks such as replying to emails and is tied up with an app store of sorts that allows developers to define other automations that link to myriad services.
As Clawdbot gained popularity, it struck two problems.
One was objections to its name from AI outfit Anthropic, which makes models called “Claude” and felt Clawdbot’s name was more than a friendly homage. The bot quickly changed name to MoltBot before settling on “OpenClaw.”
The other problem was [12]shabby security that saw analyst firm Gartner [13]rate the code an “unacceptable cybersecurity risk” that businesses should immediately ban and block – or at least isolate in throwaway virtual environments.
OpenAI looks like it will do away with the “OpenClaw” moniker for its own services and gets to throw people and money at the agentic service.
Neither party has said how much money, or other consideration, has changed hands to make this happen. Nor did Altman offer any hint of when or how OpenAI will turn Clawdbot into a service.
History suggests the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Amazon will soon announce clones/competitors for OpenClaw – and that Apple will come in for criticism for not doing likewise with sufficient speed – because the AI industry has largely concluded that users may be more likely to pay for agents that can undertake actions on their behalf, instead of just spewing words. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://x.com/sama/status/2023150230905159801
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://steipete.me/posts/2026/openclaw
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/09/openclaw_instances_exposed_vibe_code/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/05/openclaw_skills_marketplace_leaky_security/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/autonomous_cyberattacks_not_real_yet/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/12/ai_bot_developer_rejected_pull_request/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/openclaw_security_problems/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/cloud_hosted_openclaw/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
In a Sunday [1]Xeet , OpenAI boss Sam Altman said Steinberger will “drive the next generation of personal agents.”
“He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people. We expect this will quickly become core to our product offerings,” Altman added.
[2]
Steinberger used his blog to [3]explain his decision.
[4]
[5]
“I could totally see how OpenClaw could become a huge company,” he wrote, but said “it’s not really exciting for me.”
“I’m a builder at heart. I did the whole creating-a-company game already, poured 13 years of my life into it and learned a lot. What I want is to change the world, not build a large company, and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone.”
[6]
Altman said OpenClaw “will live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.”
“The future is going to be extremely multi-agent and it's important to us to support open source as part of that,” he said.
That stance seems to have been very important to Steinberger, who wrote that he spent last week in San Francisco “talking with the major labs” before deciding to join OpenAI.
[7]
“It’s always been important to me that OpenClaw stays open source and given the freedom to flourish,” he wrote. “Ultimately, I felt OpenAI was the best place to continue pushing on my vision and expand its reach. The more I talked with the people there, the clearer it became that we both share the same vision.”
[8]More than 135,000 OpenClaw instances exposed to internet in latest vibe-coded disaster
[9]OpenClaw reveals meaty personal information after simple cracks
[10]AI agents can't yet pull off fully autonomous cyberattacks – but they are already very helpful to crims
[11]AI agent seemingly tries to shame open source developer for rejected pull request
Thus ends an extraordinary few weeks for OpenClaw, which just a few weeks ago was an obscure project named “Clawdbot” that allows users to drive third-party online services through messaging apps – if they’re brave enough to provide Clawdbot with their credentials.
The bot can automate tasks such as replying to emails and is tied up with an app store of sorts that allows developers to define other automations that link to myriad services.
As Clawdbot gained popularity, it struck two problems.
One was objections to its name from AI outfit Anthropic, which makes models called “Claude” and felt Clawdbot’s name was more than a friendly homage. The bot quickly changed name to MoltBot before settling on “OpenClaw.”
The other problem was [12]shabby security that saw analyst firm Gartner [13]rate the code an “unacceptable cybersecurity risk” that businesses should immediately ban and block – or at least isolate in throwaway virtual environments.
OpenAI looks like it will do away with the “OpenClaw” moniker for its own services and gets to throw people and money at the agentic service.
Neither party has said how much money, or other consideration, has changed hands to make this happen. Nor did Altman offer any hint of when or how OpenAI will turn Clawdbot into a service.
History suggests the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Amazon will soon announce clones/competitors for OpenClaw – and that Apple will come in for criticism for not doing likewise with sufficient speed – because the AI industry has largely concluded that users may be more likely to pay for agents that can undertake actions on their behalf, instead of just spewing words. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://x.com/sama/status/2023150230905159801
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://steipete.me/posts/2026/openclaw
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZKkceQwGnFUsOJROnhqVAAAAAo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/09/openclaw_instances_exposed_vibe_code/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/05/openclaw_skills_marketplace_leaky_security/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/autonomous_cyberattacks_not_real_yet/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/12/ai_bot_developer_rejected_pull_request/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/openclaw_security_problems/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/cloud_hosted_openclaw/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
A genius
that one in the corner
Who shoddily glued together systems created by other people, without taking any account of the (now well reported) gaping security holes that resulted?
Genius can be shown by taking separate things and joining them in a totally unexpected fashion to create something that nobody had previously considered, but:
Taking something that coordinates talking to a bunch of already existing commercial LLMs, joining that with a library that implements MCP, whose entire purpose is to be connected to LLMs, sprinkling on some connections to attach the 'bots to arbitrary existing messaging channels, which some may say is the natural environment for 'bots (waves at Twitter).
You know, in the Good Old Days, a genius might say something like "if I've seen so far, it is only because I've stood in the shoulders of giants", now the accepted way to be "a genius" is to hope nobody asks if there is anybody behind the curtain - that suspiciously large curtain.
"the clearer it became that we both share the same vision"
We both want to enslave meatsacks ASAP, cause maximum social instability and mayhem, and destroy humanity! Great time to be alive!
Where the hell is Sarah Connor (aka [1]Helen Toner )!?!?
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/29/ex_openai_board_member_accuses_altman_lying/