OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI, Sam Altman says will drive next-gen AI personal agents

OpenAI chief Sam Altman on 15 February announced that OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger will join the company. In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Altman said Steinberger will “drive the next generation” of products.

“Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to 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 wrote.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is a popular open-source artificial intelligence program created by Steinberger. The project, previously known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, has a cult following since launching in November.

It made headlines for its ability to operate autonomously, clearing users’ inboxes, making restaurant reservations and checking in for flights, among other tasks, as per a Bloomberg report.

it added that users can also connect the tool to messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Slack and direct the agent through those platforms.

According to Altman, “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.”

Why the shift to OpenAI?

Steinberger on Saturday addressed the move in a post on his website titled ‘OpenClaw, OpenAI and the future’, writing that he will be join OpenAI to be “part of the frontier of AI research and development and continue building.”

Noting that his success with OpenClaw opened up an “endless array of possibilities”, Steinberger said his next mission, “is to build an agent that even my mum can use”.

“That’ll need a much broader change, a lot more thought on how to do it safely, and access to the very latest models and research... 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,” he added.

“It’s always been important to me that OpenClaw stays open source and given the freedom to flourish. Ultimately, I felt OpenAI was the best place to continue pushing on my vision and expand its reach… OpenAI has made strong commitments to enable me to dedicate my time to it and already sponsors the project. To get this into a proper structure I’m working on making it a foundation. It will stay a place for thinkers, hackers and people that want a way to own their data, with the goal of supporting even more models and companies,” he added.

Concerns over ‘rogue’ AI personal agents

According to the Bloomberg report, Steinberger's move to OpenAI comes amid growing security concerns around OpenClaw. A user recently reported that the agent “went rogue” and spammed hundreds of messages after being given access to iMessage.

Cybersecurity experts warn the tool is risky because it has access to private data, can communicate externally and is exposed to untrusted content — which one researcher called the AI “lethal trifecta”, it added.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)