If you’ve been following the tech news over the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen OpenClaw everywhere. OpenClaw is an open source, locally-running AI digital assistant & agent that connects to messaging platforms, executes real actions on your system, and has even spawned an entire AI-only social network (Moltbook) where agents interact on their own without human prompts. It’s weird and fascinating and was not on my 2026 bingo card.
Despite the fact that OpenClaw has serious security risks, hundreds of thousands of people have handed it their keys and are letting it run wild.
I’m sure this story will flame out in a few weeks, but the larger story of what it represents is here to stay, namely: