OPENCLAW CREATOR PETER STEINBERGER JOINS OPENAI — Quick Facts
Peter Steinberger, creator of the viral open-source AI agent OpenClaw, has joined OpenAI to lead development of autonomous personal agents. OpenClaw will transition to an independent foundation while remaining open-source, as OpenAI focuses on integrating agent technology into its core product offerings.
Key Data Points
- OpenClaw gained over 145,000 GitHub stars and 2 million weekly visitors within three months of its November 2025 launch
- A security audit found 512 vulnerabilities in OpenClaw, with 8 classified as critical, including CVE-2026-25253 allowing one-click remote code execution
- Peter Steinberger previously founded PSPDFKit, which he built over 13 years and sold to Nutrient in 2024
- Sam Altman announced that personal agents will 'quickly become core' to OpenAI's product offerings following Steinberger's hire
- Over 341 malicious skills out of 2,857 total (12%) were discovered in ClawHub, OpenClaw's skill marketplace
Frequently Asked
- Who is Peter Steinberger and what is OpenClaw?
- Peter Steinberger is the Austrian developer behind OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot and Moltbot), an open-source AI agent that can autonomously manage calendars, send messages, and execute tasks across messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.
- How popular did OpenClaw become?
- OpenClaw achieved viral success with over 145,000 GitHub stars, attracted 2 million visitors in a single week, and became one of the fastest-growing AI repositories in GitHub history within three months of its November 2025 launch.
- What security concerns exist with OpenClaw?
- Security researchers discovered multiple vulnerabilities including CVE-2026-25253, a critical one-click remote code execution flaw. A security audit identified 512 vulnerabilities, with 8 classified as critical, and over 300 malicious skills were found in the ClawHub marketplace.
- What happens to OpenClaw after the OpenAI hire?
- OpenClaw will continue as an open-source project under an independent foundation that OpenAI will support. Steinberger stated he wants to 'change the world, not build a large company' and saw OpenAI as the fastest path to bring agent technology to everyone.
- Why did OpenClaw change names multiple times?
- Originally called Clawdbot, it was renamed to Moltbot after trademark concerns from Anthropic over similarity to 'Claude,' then changed to OpenClaw because 'Moltbot never quite rolled off the tongue' according to Steinberger.