OpenAI's OpenClaw hire sparks praise, memes, and rivalry chatter
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images OpenAI hired the creator of OpenClaw, Peter Steinberger. The news made waves in the AI community. Some AI leaders took to X to celebrate the news, and others expressed concern. OpenAI announced on Sunday it had hired Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw. Within hours, the news sent ripples across the AI community, drawing praise from some executives, jabs from rivals, and a flood of memes from engineers watching the talent wars unfold. Steinberger wrote in a blog post shared on X Sunday that he was "joining OpenAI to work on bringing agents to everyone." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman amplified the news, writing that "the future is going to be extremely multi-agent." Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents. He is 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. We expect this will quickly become core to our… — Sam Altman (@sama) February 15, 2026 In response to the news, several OpenAI leaders welcomed Steinberger. Thibault Sottiaux, an engineering lead on OpenAI's Codex team, wrote that "@steipete is proof you can just build things." @steipete is proof you can just build things — Tibo (@thsottiaux) February 15, 2026 Another Codex engineer posted that one of the "neat" parts of OpenAI's culture is how many former founders work there. One thing @steipete and I talked about over lunch last week was how many former founders are at OpenAI. It’s a really neat part of the culture. — Andrew Ambrosino (@ajambrosino) February 16, 2026 Steinberger told Lex Friedman in a podcast last week that both Mark Zuckerberg and Altman had made him offers. OpenClaw and its agent-only social media network Moltbook became wildly popular earlier this year as developers and AI enthusiasts shared clips of autonomous AI agents posting, replying, and interacting online. The open-source project, which demonstrates how networks of AI agents can coordinate to perform tasks across apps, also rapidly gained traction on GitHub. After Steinberger's announcement on Sunday, some of the people who worked on OpenClaw commented on the news. "I know the decision was not an easy one, and I saw firsthand the pressure Peter was under, given that he understands how fundamental this could be for the AI timeline," Jamieson O'Reilly, an OpenClaw advisor, wrote on X in a post congratulating Steinberger. One thing has become very clear to me working together with @steipete on @openclaw. While lots of people spectate from the sidelines, sharing their opinions, concerns and even hot takes at times, the dude is there, vigilantly on the front-lines pushing AI forward for every one… https://t.co/fe5OEKgevm — Jamieson O'Reilly (@theonejvo) February 16, 2026 Aaron Levie, the CEO of Box, said it was a sign "2026 was the year of the agents." If anyone was wondering if 2026 was the year of agents, OpenAI is bringing on the maker of Openclaw. This space is about to get very real. https://t.co/ocqX4kE9PT — Aaron Levie (@levie) February 15, 2026 Not everyone in the tech space was as enthusiastic about the news. XAI cofounder Igor Babuschkin asked users on X: "What's the best open alternative to OpenClaw right now? Doesn't make sense to put all your data into it if it's owned by OpenAI." PayPal mafia member Jason Calacanis expressed similar concerns. 😔 what are the chances the open source project survives / thrives after this? https://t.co/4sUZkKWkGh — @jason (@Jason) February 15, 2026 Steinberger and OpenAI have said that OpenClaw will remain an open-source project with OpenAI's support. Other experts in the space pointed out that OpenAI's win could be a loss for Anthropic, especially after Steinberger wrote on X that Anthropic sent "love letters from legal." "Another interesting detail is Anthropic's visible disdain for anything open source: their only contribution to this was legal threats," George Orosz, a tech industry analyst and author of the tech newsletter The Pragmatic Engineer, wrote on X. Kris Puckett, a designer at Stripe, expressed a similar sentiment Instead of @AnthropicAI getting Claudebot, they rushed legal to send a C&D and lost out on not only brilliant talent but community drive. Truly would love to know the decision making process. — Kris Puckett (@krispuckett) February 16, 2026 Raphael Schaad, a visiting partner at Y Combinator, said, "I bet this causes lots of VC tears." I bet this causes lots of VC tears and angry OSS folks. But think about this: - Peter showed the future and lots of awesome startups are starting to bloom from this. Invest in those! - Peter created one of the most exciting OSS projects in years. The community is vibrant and… https://t.co/RFWwfXU9Lz — Raphael Schaad (@raphaelschaad) February 15, 2026 And finally, some X power users did what they do best: posted memes about the news. Was expecting this one in replies pic.twitter.com/bfcZt3Ugg6 — Tibor Blaho (@btibor91) February 15, 2026 Read the original article on Business Insider
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OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI, Altman says
OpenClaw, the open source AI agent that's surged in popularity in recent weeks, will live within OpenAI, according to a post on X from Sam Altman.
Read full article →'Eccentric but brilliant': OpenClaw's creator got feedback from Mark Zuckerberg
Peter Steinberger created AI agent OpenClaw. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI, but before that he got feedback on OpenClaw from Mark Zuckerberg. OpenClaw, an AI agent, manages tasks and actions for users. Lex Fridman called OpenClaw a major AI moment on his podcast episode interviewing Steinberger. OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI, according to an X post by Sam Altman on February 15. But before that, Steinberger got feedback on his product from Mark Zuckerberg. OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent that can autonomously handle tasks like managing email, booking flights, and interacting with apps and services on a user's behalf. "Many people are calling this one of the biggest moments in the recent history of AI, since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022," Lex Fridman said about OpenClaw on the February 11 episode of his podcast, where he interviewed Steinberger. Steinberger discussed acquisition offers from both OpenAI and Meta on the podcast, saying he also considered raising venture capital but ultimately ruled it out. "Been there, done that," he said of starting a company, adding that it would take time away from building and could create conflicts of interest between a commercial product and the open-source project. Instead, he narrowed his choice to the two AI labs, which he said made very different pitches. He said OpenAI lured him with compute power and access to cutting-edge infrastructure, while Meta's approach was more personal — Zuckerberg spent a week using OpenClaw and sent detailed feedback. "Mark basically played all week with my product and sent me like, 'Oh, this is great.' Or, 'This is shit. Oh, I need to change this.' Or, like, funny little anecdotes," Steinberger said of Zuckerberg, adding that he hopped on a WhatsApp call with the Meta CEO where they debated about Claude Code and Codex. "And then I think afterwards he called me eccentric but brilliant," Steinberger said. Just before the call, Zuckerberg said he was coding, Steinberger told Fridman on the podcast. "He didn't drift away in just being a manager; he gets me," Steinberger said. "That was a good first start." Steinberger said he appreciated Zuckerberg testing the product on Fridman's podcast. "People using your stuff is kind of like the biggest compliment, and also shows me that they actually care about it," Steinberger said. Steinberger acknowledged on the podcast that he was leaning toward one company but declined to say which. His choice, it seems, was OpenAI. Read the original article on Business Insider
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