Headline: Основатель OpenClaw: Как травля в криптосообществе почти уничтожила мой проект Translation: Founder of OpenClaw: How Harassment in the Crypto Community Almost Destroyed My Project

The AI startup OpenAI has invited Peter Steinberger, the founder of OpenClaw, to lead its division focused on personal AI agents. Simultaneously, the entrepreneur faced allegations for not launching the project’s token.

“He is a genius with a wealth of remarkable visions for a future where intelligent agents engage with one another and accomplish genuinely beneficial tasks for humans. We anticipate that this will rapidly become a central component of our product offerings,” stated OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

The CEO further emphasized that OpenClaw will operate as an open project, supported by his company.

“My aim is to change the world, not to build a large corporation, and collaborating with OpenAI is the quickest way to achieve that,” Steinberger remarked in his blog.

OpenClaw (formerly known as Clawdbot) is an open-source service that gained popularity in late January. It allows users to create AI agents that operate locally on their devices.

In an interview with Lex Fridman, Steinberger discussed the backlash he received within the crypto community. At one point, the developer contemplated shutting down the project.

“I didn’t realize that they were not only good at harassment but also very skilled at utilizing scripts and tools. I underestimated these individuals. Honestly, I was very close to just deleting this [Clawdbot],” he stated.

Steinberger is not interested in issuing or promoting a token, although users have been fervently calling for it. People created a digital asset and began demanding that the developer recognize it, collect fees, and focus on its development. They spammed various channels on Discord and X.

Ultimately, he was accused of not boosting the token’s value. Concurrently, crypto scammers attempted to hack the developer’s GitHub, and during the project’s rebranding, all usernames were quickly snatched up to promote new digital assets.

“This is the worst form of online harassment I’ve encountered,” Steinberger stressed.

It’s worth noting that in January, experts warned about the risks associated with the Clawdbot AI assistant, as it could inadvertently expose personal data and API keys.