Original Title: OpenClaw Creator Says US Can Learn From China’s AI Adoption
Original Author: Shirin Ghaffary, Bloomberg
Translated by: Peggy, BlockBeats

Editor’s Note: This article is translated from Bloomberg’s interview with OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger. After joining OpenAI, he is involved in advancing the next generation of AI agent technology. The goal is to enable AI to not only answer questions but to utilize tools, collaborate across systems, and take continuous action in environments, which is becoming a new competitive core in the industry.

In this interview, he discusses several key issues: What do the different adoption paths of OpenClaw in the US and China mean? How can AI agents be improved? How can secure collaboration between personal and work agents be achieved? How will OpenAI advance this technological direction?

Here is the original text:

The original intention of OpenClaw is to automate tasks such as flight check-in and schedule management.

The creator of OpenClaw (who recently joined OpenAI) believes more people should try using AI firsthand to learn from it and help society better prepare for this technology. However, before that…

You need to understand three things:

• OpenAI has stopped supporting Sora and is gradually ending its collaboration with Disney.

• Apple plans to restructure Siri with AI and introduce a new interface and “Ask Siri” button in iOS 27.

• Amazon has acquired Fauna Robotics, entering the consumer-facing humanoid robot market.

Embracing AI Agents

After OpenClaw gained popularity for several months, the paths of the US and China in embracing cutting-edge AI products have clearly diverged, and this difference could have profound implications for the technological competition landscape between the two countries.

In China, an increasing number of people, from students and professionals to the elderly, are starting to try using OpenClaw, with some companies even mandating their employees to use the product. Although regulators have begun to limit its application in state-owned enterprises and government agencies, China is overall becoming a large-scale testing ground—gradually allowing AI systems to take over people’s digital lives.

In contrast, in the US, OpenClaw (previously known as Moltbot and Clawdbot) has sparked widespread attention among developers and early users, but it has not yet created a comparable wave of enthusiasm among the general population. Some American companies have even begun to restrict employees from using such AI agent tools due to security risk concerns.

This starkly different market response has caught the attention of OpenClaw’s founder.

“In the US, I feel that in some companies, if you use OpenClaw, you might get fired,” said the tool’s developer, Austrian software engineer Peter Steinberger. He has now joined OpenAI, working on AI agent-related technologies. “In China, many companies are quite the opposite—if you don’t use OpenClaw, you might get fired.”

This month, at Baidu’s OpenClaw “Lobster Market” event held in Beijing, there were themed merchandise featuring lobsters on display.

Steinberger’s product was once referred to by Jensen Huang (CEO of NVIDIA) as “perhaps the most important software release in history.” However, he also admitted that the paths in both the US and China are not perfect. Although OpenClaw’s original intention was to automate tasks such as flight check-in and schedule management, he pointed out that there are still potential security risks involved.

Note: Peter Steinberger is an Austrian software engineer and developer who gained attention for creating the open-source AI agent tool OpenClaw.

“But there is no doubt that we can learn something from the faster adoption of new technologies or acceptance of different risk preferences,” Steinberger told me during an interview at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters this week. “Ultimately, this technology is still too new, and the only way to learn is to use it and try it out for ourselves.”

In his new role at OpenAI, Steinberger will be involved in developing Codex, a programming tool that currently has over 2 million users weekly. On such a powerful platform, he is also aware that the market demands higher safety and stability from products, and errors must be minimized as much as possible.

In our conversation, Steinberger discussed how to improve AI agents, OpenAI’s future plans for this technology, and why he intends to keep OpenClaw as an open-source project with the support of his new employer, planning to hand it over to a soon-to-be-established foundation for management. The following interview content has been moderately edited and organized without changing the original meaning.

Interview Original Text

Bloomberg: Sam Altman once called you a “genius” and stated that you would drive the development of the next generation of personal AI agents. What will that look like at OpenAI?

Steinberger: We are rapidly moving toward a future where everyone will have a personal agent for private life and a work agent for professional tasks. Through OpenClaw, I am essentially building a “window to the future,” showcasing my vision of what the world could look like. Of course, I also understand that no company can truly bring it to the masses yet because there are still some critical issues that need to be resolved first.

Bloomberg: What specific issues are those?

Steinberger: In that future, my agent needs to be able to communicate with your agent. For example, I work at OpenAI and use Codex for knowledge work daily, but sometimes I need to access data in my personal “claw.” So, there must be a mechanism that allows my work agent to invoke my personal agent. At the same time, I need to ensure that my personal agent does not leak any information I consider too private; and OpenAI must also ensure that internal company data is not brought back to my personal devices.

Bloomberg: You must have noticed that, for example, at Meta Platforms, employees’ excessive use of agent tools has caused issues, and now some companies are starting to tighten restrictions.

Steinberger: In the US, I feel that in some companies, if you use OpenClaw, you might get fired; while in China, many companies are quite the opposite—if you don’t use OpenClaw, you might get fired. They even showed me a form listing each employee’s name and a column for “What was automated today.” Companies are very proactively pushing employees to think about how to improve efficiency by tenfold.

Both approaches are imperfect, but we can indeed learn something from the faster adoption of new technologies and the attempts with different risk preferences. Because this technology is too new, we can only understand it through continuous attempts and trial and error.

Even at Meta, a security researcher faced a lot of ridicule on Twitter for publicly addressing related issues. I actually think that’s brave. If everyone mocks these attempts, it will only discourage more people from speaking out.

Bloomberg: What do you think about the craze that OpenClaw has sparked in China? Many people are even queuing to experience it. Are you collaborating with any Chinese companies?

Steinberger: At GTC, I communicated with many companies, such as MiniMax, Kimi, and Tencent. I can really understand this current “fervor” because I have experienced similar moments myself.

A year ago, when I first tried programming agents, they had about a 30% success rate, but just getting one thing right could provide a strong dopamine feedback. At the same time, you realize that this will fundamentally change the industry, and this is their “worst moment,” as it will only get better in the future. At that moment, I realized I could almost build anything because everything had become faster.

Now imagine if you are not a tech person but a small business owner who suddenly discovers: “It can read my emails, manage my schedule, write Google Docs, connect to my home devices, check WhatsApp, and handle customer service requests…” You would experience the same epiphany that engineers have had over the past year.

During that time, I even had trouble sleeping because the changes were just so disruptive. I’m very happy to be able to bring AI closer to more people from different backgrounds.

Bloomberg: OpenAI’s Codex has grown rapidly recently. What do you think about the combination of Codex and OpenClaw?

Steinberger: One core issue we face now is: how to help users understand that a product named “programming” is actually much more than just programming.

If you look at it from a longer-term perspective, all prompts will become stronger because of programming capabilities. AI agents will be smart enough to know their shortcomings and then compensate by writing code.

So, does the distinction between “what is a programming tool and what is not” still matter? This is also a conclusion we have reached internally at OpenAI. In the future, this distinction will no longer be important, so it will ultimately need to be integrated into one.

Bloomberg: What would happen if agents could access all your files and run continuously?

Steinberger: This is actually a “how to explain to users” issue. You can already connect almost everything in the ChatGPT application ecosystem, such as Slack, Google Docs, Notion, health data, etc. But the current challenge is how to make users truly understand that these capabilities are already available.

Another challenge is that if you are working on an open-source project, you can move quickly because users are more forgiving, knowing this is a preview version and won’t be used for work data. But once it involves real work data, the problems become completely different and require more time to refine.

I look forward to being involved in solving these problems.

Bloomberg: What is the progress of the OpenClaw Foundation? Is OpenAI supportive?

Steinberger: I try not to let OpenAI get too involved because this project needs to remain independent. The legal and organizational structures still need a few weeks to finalize.

Currently, we already have some great partners, such as NVIDIA, and have communicated with Microsoft. ByteDance has already joined, and Tencent is in progress. I hope to maintain a “Swiss-style neutrality.”

Our goal is to generate more interest in AI and get more people to start thinking about problems with AI. The most critical thing for the future is to get more people to spend more time understanding what AI can do, so that society as a whole can be better prepared. This is the best way to ensure a bright future.

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