Peter Steinberger, creator of the AI virus agent OpenClaw, who has since been hired by OpenAI, has some advice for those experimenting with AI technology, including AI agents. In his own experience, the best way to build today is to explore, be playful, and don’t expect to be an expert at what you’re doing right away.
“I wish I could say I had a unified plan in the beginning, but a lot of it was just exploration,” Steinberger said. “I wanted things and those things didn’t exist and…let’s just say I made them exist.
The developer chatted with OpenAI’s head of developer experience Romain Huet about the first episode of the company’s new Builders Unscripted podcast. Here he talked about what OpenClaw was like in its early days and how he didn’t have a plan when he started.
Steinberger explained that he started by creating a tool that would integrate with WhatsApp, but then put it aside for a while to focus on other things because he assumed that AI labs would build something similar to what he was working on in the near future.
“I’ve been through a lot. My mission was, sort of, to entertain and inspire people,” Steinberger noted. But last November, the developer was surprised that no AI labs had started building what he wanted to use. This led him to create the initial prototype of what is now OpenClaw.
“Where it really clicked was where I was on this weekend trip in Marrakech, and I found myself using it a lot more because it was so convenient…there was no really good internet. (But) WhatsApp just works everywhere,” he said. This tool made it easy for him to find restaurants, look things up on his computer, text friends and more.
The more Steinberger played with the technology, the more he realized how good modern AI models are at solving problems, much like coders are.
“Now they can just, like, actually come up with a solution on their own, even if you’ve never programmed them at all,” he noted.
Over the course of the build process, Steinberger said his workflow has improved — and he stresses to other developers that it can take time, so don’t give up.
“There are these people who … write software the old way, and the old way goes away,” he pointed out. They then decide to try vibration coding, but are disappointed with the results.
“I think vibrational coding is a slur,” Steinberger said, essentially suggesting that it’s not as simple a process as the term initially sounds. “They’re trying AI, but they don’t understand that it’s a skill,” he said, comparing the process of coding with AI to learning to play the guitar.
“You’re not going to be good on the guitar the first day,” he said. Instead, he recommends that people approach learning with a more playful approach. If he writes a challenge now, he has a sense of how long it will take, and if it takes longer, he thinks about what could have gone wrong and adjusts.
“My… advice is always, approach it in a playful way. Build something you’ve always wanted to build. If you’re at least a bit of a builder, there must be something in the back of your mind that you want to build. Maybe just play.”
This ability to experiment and have fun is the most important thing, especially at a time when people fear that their work will be overtaken by AI.
“If your identity is: I want to create things. I want to solve problems. If you’re a high agency, if you’re smart, you’re going to be in demand more than ever,” Steinberger said.