OpenAI hires OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger in push toward autonomous agents – News

Peter Steinberger, the creator of the fast-growing open-source agent framework OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI Group PBC after weeks of being courted by multiple major artificial intelligence players, marking a notable coup for the company as the battle over agentic AI intensifies.

OpenClaw, formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, is an agentic artificial intelligence framework designed to run continuously and act on behalf of users. The software allows AI agents to execute commands, interact with external services, integrate with messaging platforms and operate with broad system-level permissions.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman announced the hire on Sunday on X Inc., saying Steinberger would help drive “the next generation of personal agents.”

Altman described Steinberger as a genius with significant ideas about the future of highly capable agents interacting with one another to complete useful tasks for people. Notably for OpenClaw fans, Altman added that OpenClaw will continue as an open-source project under a foundation structure, with OpenAI supporting its development.

“The future is going to be extremely multi-agent and it’s important to us to support open source as part of that,” Altman said.

The move follows a remarkable few months for OpenClaw, as what began as an ambitious open-source personal agent project rapidly evolved into one of the most talked-about frameworks in AI.

OpenClaw has attracted tens of thousands of developers and surged in GitHub stars as interest in multi-agent systems has exploded. The project tapped into a growing desire among enterprises and independent builders for AI agents that can reason across steps, call external services and operate semi-independently rather than simply generate text: agents that can actually do things.

OpenClaw’s rise has also coincided with a broader shift in AI from static prompt-response systems to agentic architectures, systems where models are embedded inside loops that enable planning, tool use, memory retrieval and task execution.

Differing from the chat-based prompting followed by answers model many are familiar with when it comes to generative AI, agentic AI can break a goal into sub-tasks, search the web, write and run code, interact with application programming interfaces and coordinate with other agents.

The concept of agentic AI has become a focal point for both startups and major labs, which see agents as a path toward more durable enterprise value and deeper integration into daily workflows. Although billions have flown into companies pursuing agentic AI, Steinberger came up the middle with a personally coded solution that didn’t require venture capital largesse to deliver. Better still, from a user perspective, it’s offered as open source.

For OpenAI, bringing Steinberger on board signals an acceleration of its own agent ambitions. OpenAI gains not only technical expertise by hiring the creator of one of the most visible open-source agent frameworks but also credibility within a developer community that has increasingly rallied around open, modular approaches to AI orchestration.

His move to OpenAI may raise some concerns about how much attention OpenClaw may get from him in the future, but the commitment from Altman to keep OpenClaw alive as an open-source project that will be supported by OpenAI goes a long way in allaying any fears.

With agentic AI becoming the battleground for the next generation of intelligent software, the balance between proprietary closed platforms and open ecosystems may arguably shape how broadly these systems are adopted. Steinberger’s move to OpenAI marks a significant moment in that transition.

Photo: Peter Steinberger/X