Peter Steinberger, the creator of the AI personal assistant currently called OpenClaw, has become part of OpenAI. Originally launched as Clawdbot and later renamed Moltbot, OpenClaw gained widespread attention in recent weeks by positioning itself as the “AI that actually does things”—handling tasks like calendar management, flight bookings, and even participating in social networks populated by other AI assistants. (The first name change came after Anthropic raised legal concerns due to similarity to Claude, and the second change occurred simply because Steinberger preferred the new name.)

In a blog post about his move to OpenAI, the Austrian developer explained that although he could have grown OpenClaw into a major company, he found that prospect unappealing. “It’s not really exciting for me,” Steinberger wrote.

He added, “What I want is to change the world, not build a large company, and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared on X that Steinberger will “drive the next generation of personal agents.” Regarding OpenClaw itself, Altman noted that it will “live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support.”