Sam Altman on X announced that Peter Steinberger, the man behind the trending AI agent OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI. He said Steinberger has “a lot of amazing ideas” for getting AI agents to interact with each other and said “the future will be extremely multi-agent.” He also said that this ability for agents to collaborate will “quickly become a staple of our product offering.”
OpenClaw, formerly known as Moltbot and Clawdbot, exploded onto the scene earlier this year and has become the darling of the tech world. His rise has been rapid, but not without its bumps in the road. Earlier this month, researchers found over 400 malicious skills uploaded to ClawHub. She also launched MoltBook, a social network where AI agents went to complain about their humans, debate the provability of consciousness, and discuss the need for a private place to exchange ideas. And then she was immediately infiltrated by humans.
This is a high-profile hire for OpenAI after several big names were snapped up by the Meta or left to become a rival. He also had a public feud with Elon Musk. Details of the deal are not public. It’s unclear how much Steinberger is paid or what his title might be. But Altman said OpenClaw will continue as an open-source project at the OpenAI-backed foundation.