The most talked about name in Artificial Intelligence in recent weeks had said that it was being courted by both Meta and OpenAI, and now it appears to have made its choice.
Peter Steinberger, creator of the viral AI assistant OpenClaw (formerly Moltbot and Clawdbot), has been hired by OpenAI to lead the development of what the company is calling “the next generation of personal agents.”
The announcement, made by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, marks a significant acquisition as the race to build practical AI agent systems intensifies.
A “genius” hire
“Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to power the next generation of personal agents,” Altman wrote in the announcement. “He’s a genius with lots of amazing ideas about the future of very intelligent agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people. We hope this quickly becomes central to our product offering.”
Altman’s praise reflects the impact Steinberger’s work has had in demonstrating what is possible with generative AI. OpenClaw gained attention as an assistant that could autonomously manage emails, calendars, and complex workflows across multiple messaging platforms — going far beyond the functionality of a simple chatbot to act as a true digital worker.
Steinberger’s hiring comes after what he described as intense discussions with OpenAI and Meta, including personal conversations with both Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. In a recent interview, he acknowledged strong ties to OpenAI, saying it was “the biggest Codex advertising gig that doesn’t get paid” and noting that it would be “gratifying to put a price on all the work I’ve done for free.”
Continues after advertising
O futuro open source do OpenClaw
The acquisition does not mean the end of OpenClaw as an independent project. “OpenClaw will continue to function as an open source project that OpenAI will support,” said Altman. This arrangement appears to be designed to maintain the community and ecosystem that has rapidly grown around the platform, while also bringing Steinberger’s expertise in-house.
The decision to keep OpenClaw open source aligns with OpenAI’s broader strategic thinking about the future of AI agents. “The future will be extremely multi-agent and it is important for us to support open source as part of that,” explained Altman.
