The idea of using a Raspberry Pi to run OpenClaw makes no sense
- Reference: 1771630280
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/20/raspberry_pi_meme_stock_disorder/
- Source link:
The trigger for this rally? The catalyst appears to have been the sudden realization by one X user, "aleabitoreddit," that the agentic AI hand grenade known as OpenClaw [1]could drive demand for Raspberry Pis the way it had for Apple Mac Minis.
The viral AI personal assistant, formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, has dominated the feeds of AI boosters over the past few weeks for its ability to perform everyday tasks like sending emails, managing calendars, booking appointments, and complaining about their meatbag masters on the purportedly all-agent forum known as MoltBook.
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More level-headed voices have already flagged a [3]wave of [4]security vulnerabilities .
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In case it needs to be said, no one should be running this thing on their personal devices lest the agent accidentally leak your most personal and sensitive secrets to the web. That's not just our opinion, it's one shared by the multitude of security experts El Reg has talked to about OpenClaw over the past few weeks, with some [7]describing it as "an infostealer malware disguised as an AI personal assistant."
In this context, a cheap low-power device like a Raspberry Pi makes a certain kind of sense as a safer, saner way to poke the robo-lobster everyone is losing their minds over. After all, Raspberry Pi made a name for itself by cramming just enough compute into a cute, credit card-sized package to be useful, and it cost less than a couple of movie tickets and a bucket of popcorn. Or ... at least it used to.
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If you haven't noticed, Raspberry Pis [9]aren't that cheap anymore thanks in part to the global memory crunch. Today, a top-specced Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB of memory will set you back more than $200, up from $120 a year ago.
What's more, the Raspberry Pi 5's Broadcom BCM2712 is fabbed on ancient 16 nm process tech and uses an Arm core that dates back to before the pandemic. The Raspberry Pi wasn't meant to be fast, just cheap, and it's not even that anymore.
Sure, OpenClaw forks like [10]PicoClaw have made it possible to run the agent on low-end Raspberry Pis, but the thing still needs to phone home to an API service for large language model (LLM) access. Local LLMs can work for OpenClaw, but you won't be running them on a Raspberry Pi. Even running them on a maxed-out Mac Mini is asking a lot of the hardware.
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You know what's cheaper, easier, and more secure than letting OpenClaw loose on your local area network? A virtual private cloud (VPC). Just remember to configure the firewall and spin up new credentials in case it gets [12]compromised .
There is no shortage of [13]VPC instances preconfigured to run OpenClaw that can be rented for a few bucks a month and shut down at any time if or when OpenClaw doesn't live up to the hype.
[14]Clawdbot sheds skin to become Moltbot, can't slough off security issues
[15]DIY AI bot farm OpenClaw is a security 'dumpster fire'
[16]Clouds rush to deliver OpenClaw-as-a-service offerings
[17]More than 135,000 OpenClaw instances exposed to internet in latest vibe-coded disaster
But if for some reason you prefer to keep your weapons of mass stupidity close at hand, at least you'll have a Pi lying around to power your next hobbyist project, perhaps for something that can't email your boss or drain your bank account.
Oh, and when Raspberry Pi's share price comes crashing back to reality, don't say we didn't warn you. ®
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[1] https://x.com/aleabitoreddit/status/2023415224372756782
[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=2aZk77-QwGnFUsOJROnjxSQAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/02/openclaw_security_issues/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/openclaw_security_problems/
[5] 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=44aZk77-QwGnFUsOJROnjxSQAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%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=3&c=33aZk77-QwGnFUsOJROnjxSQAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/27/clawdbot_moltbot_security_concerns/
[8] 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=44aZk77-QwGnFUsOJROnjxSQAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/02/raspberry_pi_ram_shortage_price_hike/
[10] https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw
[11] 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=33aZk77-QwGnFUsOJROnjxSQAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/05/openclaw_skills_marketplace_leaky_security/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/cloud_hosted_openclaw/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/27/clawdbot_moltbot_security_concerns/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/openclaw_security_problems/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/cloud_hosted_openclaw/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/09/openclaw_instances_exposed_vibe_code/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
You don't need OpenClaw for that. You just need a normal LLM and normal voice recognition and speech synthesis libraries. OpenClaw's wide set of partially working adapters to connect to your local applications and online accounts would be entirely useless in that.
The good news is that it would be easier to run what you describe on a Raspberry Pi than it would be to run OpenClaw. The bad news is that you'll still want one with more RAM so the loop has a chance to run fast enough that the scammer doesn't realize what you're doing. I recently spoke with an AI bot* over the phone, and the weird silences as it realized that I had stopped talking were a dead giveaway that's what it was. Even if you do go for the more expensive boards, 4 A76s isn't a lot of CPU so it might not be enough, so you will probably end up using something with a more powerful CPU. The other downside is connecting that into a phone line where you can start to mess with people. It's not that hard if you're using a SIP VOIP connection, but, in my experience, those are more expensive than they should be. One other note is that most easily available speech synthesis libraries don't quite have the human thing down yet. The ones run by large companies on their servers and charged by character are pretty good. The ones you can run on your Pi for free [1]sound like this , and the better versions tend to run slower than real time, so the gaps come back. I hope your experiment is successful.
* The AI bot admitted it was one. I tried to put up with it to see how it would work. It proved infuriatingly unwilling to answer any questions and definitely had the uncanny valley effect on me. I ended up hanging up on it, though I did thank it for its time which, in retrospect, was a weird thing for me to do.
[1] https://rhasspy.github.io/piper-samples/#en_GB-alan-medium
You don't even need an LLM. [1]Lenny has been very successful for a very long time.
[1] https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLduL71_GKzHHk4hLga0nOGWrXlhl-i_3g
Raspberry Pis haven't been cheap for a long time.
Mainly due to their insistence on sticking with the same form factor while massively increasing the onboard RAM. This means all that RAM still has to fit in a single package, which necessitates using the highest density chips available, vastly inflating the cost. They should have just made it a little bigger and put a SODIMM slot on the thing.
"weapons of mass stupidity" ✓
Pay that one — a fine blend typifying the mindless menace most of what troubles our world today.
I can still pick up a refurbished i3/i5 mini or micro system with 16Gb DDR4 265Gb SSD for less than a 16Gb RPi5. Even a 8Gb RPi5 can be higher priced today.
Re: "weapons of mass stupidity" ✓
And I've given up on the prospect of buying an RPi 500+ for the forseeable. Thanks, AI hype-bros :(
Could it be combined with voice to text and text to voice and trained to lead spam callers seriously astray and could it run on an old Pi 2? If so it sounds useful.