The founder of OpenClaw joined OpenAI with the goal of "developing an AI assistant that even my mother can use".

Written by: Long Yue, Wall Street Insights

The battle for AI talent in Silicon Valley has escalated. With Zuckerberg and Altman personally vying for the top spot, the founder of the wildly popular AI platform OpenClaw has ultimately sided with OpenAI, aiming to overcome the final hurdle in making AI go from "fun" to "useful".

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman officially confirmed on Sunday via social media platform X that Peter Steinberger, the creator of the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, will be joining the company.

Regarding the project's ownership, which has been a focus of market attention, both parties reassured the public: OpenClaw will not be privatized, but will instead be transferred to an independent foundation to continue open-sourcing, with OpenAI committing to providing support.

Altman: Steinberger was a genius.

Altman spoke highly of Steinberger's joining the company and directly pointed out the direction of OpenAI's future product strategy.

“Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI to drive the development of the next generation of personal agents,” Altman wrote. “We expect this to soon become central to our product offerings.”

This signifies that OpenAI's strategic focus is shifting from single, large-scale model capabilities to more complex agent interactions. Altman further explained the underlying logic:

"He (Steinberger) is a genius with many amazing ideas about how highly intelligent agents of the future can interact and do things that are very useful to humanity."

He emphasized: "The future will be a world of extremely multi-agent systems, and as part of that, supporting open source is important to us."

From "Geek Toys" to "Mass Consumer Goods": Even Moms Can Use Them

Steinberger's core mission after joining OpenAI is very clear and straightforward: to improve the usability of AI.

OpenClaw previously gained immense popularity on GitHub for its ability to autonomously control mobile phones, clean up emails, and book flights, but its operational threshold remains quite high. Steinberger wrote in a statement:

“My next mission is to build an intelligent agent that even my mother can use. This requires broader changes, more thinking about how to achieve this safely, and access to the latest models and research.”

This statement addresses the biggest pain point in the current AI market. While large-scale models are powerful, they lack an interactive layer that allows ordinary consumers to use them with "zero barriers."

OpenAI's move aims to address its shortcomings and push AI Agents from the developer community to billions of ordinary users, which is directly related to the ceiling of AI commercialization and monetization.

Altman's "computing power strategy" vs. Zuckerberg's "geek passion"

This is not just a job offer, but a microcosm of a battle between giants. Meta and OpenAI have launched drastically different offensives in their bid for Steinberger.

It has been revealed that Meta is employing a "direct CEO hiring" strategy. Zuckerberg not only personally tested the product but also spoke with Steinberger on the phone to discuss code details, attempting to win him over with "technical resonance." Steinberger once commented, "Zucker understands me."

Ultimately, OpenAI won this round with its absolute "hard power." Altman directly demonstrated the top-tier computing potential brought by the Cerebras collaboration and the deep support for the Codex model. In current AI research and development, computing power is the ultimate measure of success.

Steinberger stated frankly: "Ultimately, I feel that OpenAI is the best place to continue advancing my vision and expanding its impact."

This sends a signal to investors: in the competition for top AI talent, simply offering high salaries or CEO favoritism is no longer the deciding factor. Whoever can provide the most cutting-edge model access and computing resources will have the pricing power.

The "Fatal Triple Combo" and the Theory of the Demise of Apps

With the exponential leap in the capabilities of intelligent agents, security and the restructuring of business models have become the B-side of market attention.

OpenClaw once went "crazy" due to excessive privileges, sending hundreds of spam messages to users. Cybersecurity experts call this combination of "access to private data + external communication capabilities + exposure to untrusted content" the "Lethal Trifecta" .

With Steinberger joining the company, the primary technical challenge facing OpenAI will be how to grant AI autonomy while keeping it under control.

The more profound impact lies in the software ecosystem. Steinberger predicts that in the future, "80% of apps will disappear," existing instead as APIs, with intelligent agents taking over all interactions.

If this prediction comes true, the existing traffic distribution logic and app advertising model will be completely overturned. For investors, the focus should not only be on model vendors, but also on companies that are building "agent-friendly" API interfaces.