As OpenClaw Enthusiasm Grips China, Kids and Retirees Alike Raise 'Lobsters'
- Reference: 0181051540
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/03/19/2231252/as-openclaw-enthusiasm-grips-china-kids-and-retirees-alike-raise-lobsters
- Source link:
> Fan Xinquan, a retired electronics worker in Beijing, has recently started raising a "lobster," hoping that the AI agent he has been training can help organize his specialized industry knowledge better than chatbots like DeepSeek. "OpenClaw can actually help you accomplish many practical things," the 60-year-old said at a recent event hosted by AI startup Zhipu to teach people how to use and train the AI agent, which has gone viral in China, with its various local versions earning the "lobster" nickname.
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> In the past month, OpenClaw, which can connect several hardware and software tools and learn from the data produced with much less human intervention than a chatbot, [1]has captured the imaginations of many in China , from retirees looking for side income to AI firms hoping to generate new revenue streams. [...]
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> Huang Rongsheng, chief architect at Baidu's smart device unit Xiaodu, said at an event on Tuesday that parent group chats for his daughter's primary school class have become overwhelmed by OpenClaw discussions. "My daughter came to me and asked: Dad, I see you raising a lobster every day," he said. "Can I have one too?" Bai Yiyun, another attendee at the Zhipu event, said she hopes to use the agent to start a side hustle during her retirement.
"If DeepSeek [2]marked a milestone for open-source large language models, then OpenClaw represents a similar turning point for open-source "agents," said Wei Sun, chief AI analyst at Counterpoint Research.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/openclaw-enthusiasm-grips-china-schoolkids-retirees-alike-raise-lobsters-2026-03-19/
[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/01/24/0049233/scale-ai-ceo-says-china-has-quickly-caught-the-us-with-deepseek
Not really. (Score:3)
> But the initial wave of enthusiasm could still peter out, especially as token costs accumulate and regulators warn of security vulnerabilities. Zhipu this week raised token prices on its new OpenClaw-optimised AI model by 20%.
> "Output is extremely low: ordinary people spend tens or hundreds of yuan, burning through a bunch of tokens and in the end, they might only get a pile of useless data," read one post on Rednote, a social media platform, titled "Goodbye OpenClaw."
It would appear that people are personally finding out that AI is overhyped.
Re: (Score:2)
>> But the initial wave of enthusiasm could still peter out, especially as token costs accumulate and regulators warn of security vulnerabilities. Zhipu this week raised token prices on its new OpenClaw-optimised AI model by 20%.
>> "Output is extremely low: ordinary people spend tens or hundreds of yuan, burning through a bunch of tokens and in the end, they might only get a pile of useless data," read one post on Rednote, a social media platform, titled "Goodbye OpenClaw."
> It would appear that people are personally finding out that AI is overhyped.
It served its purpose though. Hoovering up resources / monetary value is the ultimate purpose of the AI hype machine, and it's definitely doing that.
My lobster made me lots of money... (Score:2)
I gave him access to my stock and bank account and credit cards and he is telling me I am making 10% profit a week...
He works closely with AI companies from Myanma and Cambodia certified by government so money are very safe.
Why should people use it? (Score:2)
I'm honestly confused about what OpenClaw is supposed to be good for, and why I should want to run it. Am I just showing my age and I can't appreciate modern tools? Or have millions of people gone crazy? Please tell me what I'm missing.
It's a program whose behavior is unpredictable and unreliable. I'm supposed to install it on my computer and give it read and write access to my files and my online accounts. I'm supposed to do that in the hope it will do some things I like and not do too many things I d
Re: (Score:2)
> I'm honestly confused about what OpenClaw is supposed to be good for, and why I should want to run it. Am I just showing my age and I can't appreciate modern tools? Or have millions of people gone crazy? Please tell me what I'm missing.
> It's a program whose behavior is unpredictable and unreliable. I'm supposed to install it on my computer and give it read and write access to my files and my online accounts. I'm supposed to do that in the hope it will do some things I like and not do too many things I don't like, but with no guarantee of either.
> Why is that not a terrible idea?
People may or may not have gone crazy. One thing that is verifiably true: people are extremely susceptible to propaganda, and the AI propaganda has taken a DEEP root in large segments of our populations due to the constant flooding of all channels with news about how AI will save the entire universe from everything, possibly up to and including us. It's like some weird new form of religion where people cast off their ability to think in favor of climbing aboard the trend, whether there is any tangible benef
Other things aside... (Score:2)
I am shocked at how many people think they can resell the services of an LLM agent as a side hustle. If it works out, then there's zero reason to go to *you* for the same LLM they can just use themselves. If it *doesn't* work, well, you've got problems.
Re: (Score:2)
I've yet to encounter an AI agent that doesn't need some expert oversight. The service is essentially checking and correcting the AI.
I've started using it a bit for my job, and it saves me time but is nowhere near good enough to make me redundant.
Re: Other things aside... (Score:2)
Timing
Do it now to take advantage of the fact that AI familiarity is low. Eventually that will change and those businesses will fail or change or whatever, but milk or while you can