Peter Steinberger, who created the AI personal assistant now known as OpenClaw, has joined OpenAI.
OpenClaw, formerly known as Clawdbot and then Moltbot, has rapidly gained popularity over the past few weeks with its promise to be “an AI that actually does things,” like managing your calendar, booking a flight, and even joining a social network packed with other AI assistants. (The name was first changed after Anthropic threatened legal action due to its similarity to Claude, but was later changed again because Steinberger liked the new name better.)
In a blog post announcing his decision to join OpenAI, the Austrian developer said that while he could have turned OpenClaw into a huge company, “that’s not very exciting to me.”
“What I want is to change the world, not to build a big company (,). Partnering with OpenAI is the quickest way to bring this to everyone,” Steinberger said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a post on X that Steinberger will be “powering the next generation of personal agents” in his new role. OpenClaw “will remain within the foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support,” Altman said.
