tech
January 31, 2026
OpenClaw's AI assistants are now building their own social network
The viral personal AI assistant formerly known as Clawdbot has a new shell — again. After briefly rebranding as Moltbot, it has now picked OpenClaw as its new name.
TL;DR
- The personal AI assistant, previously known as Clawdbot, has been renamed OpenClaw after a legal challenge from Anthropic and a brief stint as Moltbot.
- The project creator, Peter Steinberger, ensured the new name OpenClaw avoids copyright issues and sought permission from OpenAI.
- OpenClaw has quickly gained popularity, attracting over 100,000 GitHub stars in two months.
- The community has developed offshoots like Moltbook, a social network for AI assistants.
- Concerns about security risks, including prompt injection, remain, making OpenClaw best suited for technical users rather than the general public.
- OpenClaw is now accepting sponsors to fund its development and properly pay its maintainers.