OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced that Peter Steinberger, the creator of the AI agent OpenClaw, is joining the company. OpenClaw, which was launched last month, has surged in popularity due to its ability to automate tasks and manage online services without constant human guidance.
Details of the Move
Altman stated that OpenClaw will 'live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.' Steinberger, an Austrian software developer, will be joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents. Altman praised Steinberger as 'a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people.'
OpenAI, valued at $500 billion, faces intense competition in the generative AI market, particularly from Google and Anthropic. Anthropic's Claude has been gaining traction, especially with the recent introduction of Claude Opus 4.6, which is said to be better at coding and sustaining tasks for longer periods.
OpenClaw has spread quickly, especially in China, where it can be paired with Chinese-developed language models and configured to work with Chinese messaging apps. Baidu, a Chinese search engine, plans to give users of its main smartphone app direct access to OpenClaw.
Some researchers have expressed concerns about the openness of OpenClaw and the potential cyberthreats that could arise from users' ability to tweak it. This move by OpenAI to incorporate OpenClaw into its offerings signals a strategic expansion into the personal AI agent market, which is expected to become core to their product line.