Peter Steinberger, the creator of the AI personal assistant OpenClaw, has joined OpenAI. The assistant previously operated under the names Clawdbot and Moltbot. It gained viral popularity as the “AI that actually does things,” capable of managing calendars, booking flights, and interacting within a social network of AI assistants. The name changed from Clawdbot to Moltbot after Anthropic threatened legal action regarding its similarity to “Claude,” and later to OpenClaw based on Steinberger’s preference.

In a blog post, Steinberger explained that joining OpenAI is the fastest way to bring the technology to everyone and aligns with his goal of changing the world rather than building a large company, which he described as “not really exciting.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on X that Steinberger will “drive the next generation of personal agents.” Altman stated that OpenClaw will continue as an open source project housed in a foundation, with ongoing support from OpenAI.

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