In November 2025, Austrian programmer Peter Steinberger emerged from a four-year hiatus to create OpenClaw, a controversial open-source AI project that rapidly gained 195,000 GitHub stars. Initially designed as a travel assistant, OpenClaw connects WhatsApp to AI coding tools, revolutionizing how users manage tasks. However, its explosive growth has led to a significant security crisis, exposing over 135,000 vulnerable systems and sparking concerns about “shadow AI” infiltrating corporate networks.
Despite billion-dollar acquisition offers from tech giants like Meta and OpenAI, Steinberger, with a fortune of over $100 million, remains staunchly against commercialization to prevent “enshittification” of the tool. OpenClaw’s architecture highlights a new paradigm—where a single developer can produce what previously needed hundreds. While its democratization of software development is hailed, critics warn of security risks and potential misuse. The project raises profound questions about the future of human agency in an increasingly automated digital landscape. Welcome to the Age of the Lobster.
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