OpenAI hires OpenClaw creator to lead personal agents after Meta battle
The creator of the viral AI agent that actually does stuff just joined OpenAI.
OpenAI has hired Peter Steinberger, creator of the viral open-source AI assistant OpenClaw, to lead its "personal agents" division after reportedly beating Meta in a hiring battle. OpenClaw autonomously handles emails, web browsing, coding, and calendar management via WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack, growing from 9k to 145k+ GitHub stars and causing Mac Mini shortages. Jason Calacanis claims it handled 20% of his company's tasks in 20 days. The project remains open-source under a foundation, despite security concerns about third-party skills.
Why It Matters
This signals OpenAI's aggressive push into autonomous AI agents, moving beyond chatbots into systems that actively perform real-world tasks.