What happens when a genuinely useful agent collides with meme culture? Meet OpenClaw—formerly known as Moltbot and, at its inception, Clawdbot before that—an open-source AI agent that has become the most talked-about AI tool on the internet this week. Built by developer Peter Steinberger, it runs locally on a user’s own hardware and connects to everyday apps like WhatsApp, Slack, Discord and iMessage, acting as a proactive digital assistant. It can manage emails, update calendars, run commands, summarize information and take autonomous actions across a user’s online life.
In short, OpenClaw has all the ingredients for this week’s featured AI recipe: a tool that actually works, personal stakes and just enough absurdity to fuel memes. That combination has resonated deeply with the GTD—or “get things done”— lifehacking community, said IBM Senior Research Scientist Marina Danilevsky on the latest episode of Mixture of Experts. “It is very personal, it’s very easy, and you can get both very practical and very silly with it.”
Demos of the agent autonomously completing tasks rocketed across X, TikTok and Reddit, and the tool has racked up over 100,000 GitHub stars to date. Users across social media have called out its persistent memory and the fact that its agentic behavior makes it feel less like a chatbot and more like a true digital employee or assistant. If that weren’t enough, its mascot is an adorable “space lobster,” inspired by Molty, Steinberger’s personal AI assistant.