OpenAI hires creator of ‘OpenClaw’ AI agent tool

OpenAI has recruited Peter Steinberger, the Austrian developer behind OpenClaw, an AI agent tool that can carry out tasks in the real world, according to Business Recorder, which cited Sam Altman's Sunday announcement. Altman said Steinberger will help drive the company's next generation of personal agents, and he described the developer as having many ideas about how highly capable agents might work together for users.

Steinberger built OpenClaw in November to manage his own digital life, and the tool has drawn both excitement and concern across the technology sector. Altman said the tool would stay an open-source project inside a foundation that OpenAI supports, and he expected it to become central to the company's product range.

The report noted that OpenClaw users connect the software to generative AI models such as ChatGPT and communicate with their agents through messaging apps, while some users have raised cybersecurity concerns. The story also points to OpenAI's pressure to widen revenue, since only a small share of its nearly one billion users pay for subscriptions and the company has started testing advertisements in ChatGPT.