"This time, OpenAI dominated the cycle after CEO Sam Altman revealed that the company had hired Peter Steinberger, the Austrian developer behind OpenClaw-open-source software to build autonomous AI agents that had gone wildly viral over the past three months. In a post on his personal site, Steinberger said joining OpenAI would allow him to pursue his goal of bringing AI agents to the masses, without the added burden of running a company."
"OpenClaw was presented as a way to build the ultimate personal assistant, automating complex, multi-step tasks by connecting LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude to messaging platforms and everyday applications to manage email, schedule calendars, book flights, make restaurant reservations, and the like. But Steinberger demonstrated that it could go further: In one example, when he accidentally sent OpenClaw a voice message it wasn't designed to handle, the system didn't fail."
"That kind of autonomous behavior is precisely what made OpenClaw exciting to developers, getting them closer to their dream of a real J.A.R.V.I.S., the always-on helper from the Iron Man movies. But it quickly triggered alarms among security experts. Just last week, I described OpenClaw as the "bad boy" of AI agents, because an assistant that is persistent, autonomous, and deeply connected across systems is also far harder to secure."
OpenAI hired Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, to accelerate development of autonomous AI agents. OpenClaw automates multi-step tasks by linking large language models to messaging platforms and everyday applications to handle email, calendars, travel, reservations, and more. The system demonstrated unexpected flexibility by inferring file formats and selecting needed tools without explicit instructions. That autonomous, persistent, and deeply connected behavior attracted developers aiming for always-on assistants while prompting security experts to warn that such agents are harder to secure. The hire reflects tensions between rapid deployment of powerful agents and the need for stronger safety controls.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]